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Sonia is unfit to become PM, says sis-in-law Maneka

Union Social Justice Minister Maneka Gandhi today said Congress president Sonia Gandhi is unfit to be India's prime minister because she lacks experience.

"It is true that she is a foreigner. But more than that, she has never done any social work and does not have any training. We are not born politicians, but you learn, study, and most important, you feel that something should be done," Maneka Gandhi, widow of Rajiv Gandhi's younger brother Sanjay, said in a television programme, to be aired on Sunday.

On Sonia Gandhi's role as wife of the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, she said: "Did she look at files or give orders? The wife of an MP does social work in her constituency. All over the world there is a tradition of wives of presidents and prime ministers doing some work, be it planting trees, caring about the environment or animals. But can anyone talk of anything that she may have done as wife of the prime minister?"

Admitting that she had benefited from the Gandhi family name, Maneka said: "There are benefits to a certain extent since you have connections. One knows who is who. You know other families and political people. That is the limit. There are no other benefits."

Sonia Gandhi will also gain from past political connections. "She has gained, hasn't she? Lots of people have come, not only from our family. Many children have joined politics after their parents and many women have joined politics after their husbands. But they have not held steady because life gives one chance only and then you are on your own."

She said life had, however, given Sonia Gandhi many chances and now she was on her own. It was now up to her to show what she could do.

Maneka Gandhi said contesting the by-election from Amethi as Sanjay's widow was a mistake she now wishes she had never made.

Asked whether she should have contested against Sonia Gandhi in Bellary and Amethi, she replied: "Had I gone to Bellary, we would have become objects of mockery. Right now I am not ready to leave Pilibhit."

UNI

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