Word: indira
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What may be the end of the line for the Nehrus and Gandhis may also rid India of the cult of personality and the stranglehold of centralized power. When Indira was elevated to the Congress presidency in 1959, Nehru was the first to abhor the prospect of a dynasty. He later told an American interviewer, "I am not capable of ruling from the grave. How terrible it would be if I, after all I have said about the processes of democratic government, were to attempt to handpick a successor. The best I can do for India is to help...
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was reminiscing about her father, Jawaharlal Nehru, some years ago. "People say he was like the banyan tree: nothing and nobody grew in his shadow," she mused. "They are wrong. He was like the sun, and let everything and everybody grow -- even the weeds, let us be honest." It was vintage Indira, who would have denied there was a Nehru dynasty even as she came to symbolize...
...wonder Congress elders turned immediately to Sonia Gandhi, 44, as party leader. But Sonia is a widow with no desire for power. She never wanted her husband Rajiv to enter politics, much less succeed his mother. It was Sonia who cradled Indira's head as she lay dying from assassins' bullets, and friends note that after the shooting in 1984, she became obsessed with the safety of her husband and children. Behind the dark glasses she wore during public appearances, her eyes constantly searched crowds for a possible assassin. Says a friend: "What she was most afraid...
...Stefano Maino and his wife Paola in Lusiana, a small town in Italy's Veneto region, Sonia was sent to Cambridge in the early '60s to study English. There she met Rajiv, who was studying mechanical engineering at Trinity College. Although both families initially opposed their marrying, it was Indira who first gave her blessing and later persuaded Sonia's parents to consent. The young Italian wholeheartedly adopted India, learning fluent Hindi and Indian cooking...
Beyond Rajiv's immediate family, there are other Gandhis and Nehrus interested in taking up the family business. Maneka Gandhi, 34, widow of Rajiv's younger brother Sanjay, is highly ambitious and politically astute, currently holding office as Minister of Environment. But she quarreled with the family when Indira cut her out of the succession after Sanjay's death, and joined the opposition. The only other possible choice is Arun Nehru, 47, a cousin of Rajiv's and a former corporate executive who once was Minister of Internal Security in Rajiv's Cabinet. But the two fell...