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Sonia's "desire for unearned power," says Mahajan

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14. The Bharatiya Janata Party today charged the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, with "an arrogant disrespect for democracy'' and an "intense desire for unearned power.''

The party general secretary in-charge of elections and main spokesperson, Pramod Mahajan, today said that by candidly admitting in an interview, which appeared in The Hindu today, that she could have been Prime Minister in 1991 if she wanted, she had shown her "intense desire for unearned power.''

He said that in 1991, at the time of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, Ms. Gandhi's citizenship of this country was "only eight years old'' as she had retained Italian citizenship for 16 years after coming to India.

Mr. Mahajan interpreted Ms. Gandhi's remark to indicate that P.V. Narasimha Rao was "only a surrogate Prime Minister'' since "she did not want to become Prime Minister herself.'' Mr. Mahajan charged her with having not only "undermined'' the authority of Mr. Narasimha Rao but also having "wantonly unseated'' two subsequent Prime Ministers, Inder Kumar Gujral and Deve Gowda.

Mr. Mahajan was addressing the press where he also released his party's first list of candidates for the Lok Sabha elections. When several reporters suggested that he was twisting known facts as well as the statement of Ms. Gandhi, his response was that by saying now that she refused to be elected leader of the Congress then, she had shown her "arrogance." At one point, Mr. Mahajan said: "It shows that she wanted to be Prime Minister soon after her husband's death.''

Mr. Mahajan insisted that he was not twisting Ms. Gandhi's statement, that it was an affront to India's national self-respect and also to "democratic traditions.''

He added: "The Congress may have allowed itself to become the property of one family, but India will not allow anyone from that family or from the Congress party to consider the country's premiership to be the natural right of one family.''

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