Author: Christine Pemberton
Publication: Niticentral.com
Date: October 6, 2013
URL: http://www.niticentral.com/2013/10/06/memsahibs-diary-hey-sonia-you-have-an-obedient-son-142027.html

Let me state it for the record, loud and clear.

I am insanely jealous of Sonia Gandhi.  Irrationally, insanely jealous. And here’s the reason why. What a testimony to the power of motherhood, to have your 43-year-old son still deferring publicly to you, and openly admitting being ticked off.

Hats off to the lady.

I just hope my two children are listening. For goodness’ sake, I can’t make them do something as simple as updating IOS7 on my phone for me without much exasperated eye-rolling, so my admiration for Madame currently knows no bounds. How does she do it?  How on earth does she manage to make her 43-year-old son (a) listen to her and (b) then tell 1.2 billion people that Mummy didn’t like what he said?

Bravo, signora. Bravissima.

Young Rahul Gandhi (age 43 1/4) stunned us all last week by finally saying something that was controversial for the Congress lackeys but music to the ears of most of the rest of the 1.2 billion of us who are sick and tired of the corruption in Indian politics. Basically, in the proverbial nutshell, Rahul said that the Ordinance protecting MPs with criminal records was and I quote “nonsense” and should be torn up. The country gasped.

I bet all the politicians with criminal records gasped even louder. And many people said, grudgingly, that wonder of wonders, perhaps the supposed wunderkind of Indian politics had finally made sense. But then he went and blurted out the truth: “My mother told me the words I used were wrong. In hindsight, maybe the words I used were strong but the sentiment was not wrong. I am young….”

There you are, India.  Business as normal in the Gandhi household. Mummy says no.  And Rahul (aged 43¼) thinks he is young. Makes you want to weep…and as I wrote the word “weep” just now, I suddenly remembered another priceless gem from young Rahul Gandhi (aged 43¼). Remember the moving little anecdote he told us all back in January, about mummy coming to his room and crying after a speech he had made? To be fair, he was only 42½ back then, so we should perhaps cut him some slack: “Last night, everyone congratulated me… But last night my mother came to my room and she was with me and she cried. Why did she cry? She cried because she understands that the power so many seek is actually a poison. She can see it because of what it does to the people around her and the people they love. But, most importantly, she can see it because she is not attached to it…”

Now, I am in no position to criticise Sonia-ji’s mothering skills. She is clearly doing a fabulous job, and  – as I said at the outset – I am very, very jealous of all this public maternal devotion.

But shouldn’t she perhaps teach young Rahul (you all know his age by now) that he should in public refer to her as “the Congress party president” rather than “my mother”?  In one master-stroke this would make him seem so much more grown up than his 43¼ years, don’t you think?  We all know who your Mama is, thank you baba, so, there’s no need for such familiarity. If we are all supposed to believe that you are there solely on your merits, Rahul ji, and not because you are a famous son, it hardly makes sense to broadcast the fact now, does it?

Yes, I know, I know, as you said, you are still young, but perhaps you could take this foreign auntie-ji’s advice and start calling your mother by her title? But, actually, baba, if you are still young, then by the same token, I am not even remotely middle-aged, so we can cut out the auntie-ji nonsense. Now all I have to do is instill some of this public maternal respect in my two children.  Must stop them patting my head rather patronisingly, as they say “Mum, yes, we know, you’ve told that story before…”