Andimuthu Raja (born May 10, 1963, Perambalur, Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian politician from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(DMK) political party. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Nilgiris constituency of Tamil Nadu.

In 2011, TIME magazine listed the 2G spectrum scam, in which Raja was allegedly involved, as number two on their “Top 10 Abuses of Power” list.^[1][2]

Political career[link]

Resignation[link]

On October 17, 2008 he submitted his post-dated resignation to the DMK party chief, M. Karunanidhi, in protest of the killings of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.^[3] His resignation was a part of the mass resignation of all the DMK ministers forming a parts of the coalition UPA^{[clarification needed]} central government.

2G Spectrum scandal[link]

The 2G spectrum financial scandal involved the alleged corrupt sale in 2008 of telecommunications bandwidth to selected organisations at prices that understated the real market value of the asset. The sale is claimed to have occurred during the period when Raja headed the Telecommunications and IT Ministry and it has been considered the largest political corruption case in modern Indian history, amounting to around 176,645 crore (US$35.24 billion)^{[4] [5]} of lost income for the Government of India. It is alleged that the sale should have been put under a transparent auction system.

A First information report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claims that the allocation was not done as per market prices.^[6] The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) holds Raja personally responsible for the sale of 2G spectrum at 2001 rates in 2008.^[7] In August, 2010, evidence was submitted by the CAG showing that Raja had personally signed and approved the majority of the questionable allocations.^[8] Although the political opposition was demanding his resignation over the 2G spectrum scam, Raja initially refused to resign stating his innocence, and this view was backed by his party president M.Karunanidhi.^[9] He eventually resigned on November 14, 2010.^[10] There will be further criminal investigation and action on Raja with reports being filed by the CAG and the CBI.

In 2011, the results of an investigation by retired judge Shivraj Patil, who was appointed by current telecom minister Kapil Sibal, has also found Raja to have been directly responsible for "procedural lapses" regarding the sale.^[11] The CBI and Enforcement Directorate estimate that Raja could have made as much as Rs 3000 crore from the alleged bribes.^[12]

In January and February 2011, Raja's homes and offices were raided by the CBI. who seized computers as potential evidence.^[13] Raja and two former associates were arrested on February 2, 2011. The three were questioned and thereafter Raja was placed for a period in judicial custody at Tihar Jail.^[14][15][16]

Subsequent to his arrest, the DMK supported him on the basis that he was innocent until proven guilty.^[17]

Arrest and chargesheet[link]

On February 2, 2011, the CBI arrested Raja along with his aide, R. K. Chandolia, and Siddharth Behura, the former Telecom Secretary.^[18][19] Both Raja and R.K. Chandolia are heard in conversation with Niira Radia in the released Radia tapes.^[20][21] On 15 May 2012, he was granted bail by the Supreme court, however under a condition that he would not visit Department of Telecommunications, neither his home state Tamil Nadu.^[22][23][24] He stayed in Tihar jail for fifteen months.^[25]

See also[link]

• List of scandals in India
• List of politicians in India charged with corruption
• Sadiq Batcha
• Suresh Kalmadi
• Justice A.K. Ganguly

References[link]

External links[link]

• "Fifteenth Lok Sabha Members Bioprofile: Raja, Shri Andimuthu". Parliament of India. Archived from the original on 2011-03-10. http://www.webcitation.org/5x5JwiiCm. 

Sonia Gandhi
Chairperson of the National Advisory Council
Incumbent
Assumed office 29 March 2010
In office 2004–2006
Chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance
Incumbent
Assumed office 2004
Member of Lok Sabha
Incumbent
Assumed office 2006
Constituency	Rae Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh
In office 2004–2006
President of the Indian National Congress
Incumbent
Assumed office 1998
Member of Lok Sabha
In office 1999–2004
Constituency	Amethi, Uttar Pradesh
Leader of the Opposition
In office 19 March 1998 – 22 May 2004
Preceded by	Sharad Pawar
Succeeded by	Lal Krishna Advani
Personal details
Born	Edvige Antonia Albina Maino (1946-12-09) 9 December 1946 (age 65) Lusiana, Veneto, Italy
Citizenship	India
Nationality	Italian[citation needed]
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Rajiv Gandhi (m. 1969–1991) «start: (1969)–end+1: (1992)»"Marriage: Rajiv Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Sonia_Gandhi)
Children	Rahul Gandhi Priyanka Vadra
Residence	10 Janpath, New Delhi, India
Profession	Politician social worker
Religion	Roman Catholicism[1]

Sonia Gandhi (born Antonia Edvige Albina Maino^[2][3][4] on 9 December 1946)^[5] is an Italian-born Indian politician and the President of the Indian National Congress, one of the major political parties of India. She is the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi and belongs to Nehru–Gandhi family. After his assassination in 1991, she was invited by the Indian National Congress to take over the Congress but refused and publicly stayed away from politics amidst constant prodding by the Congress. She finally agreed to join politics in 1997; in 1998, she was elected as the leader of the Congress.

Since then, Sonia Gandhi has been the President of the Indian National Congress Party. She has served as the Chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance in the Lok Sabha since 2004. In September 2010, on being re-elected for the fourth time, she became the longest serving president in the 125-year history of the Congress party.^[6] Her foreign birth has been a subject of much debate and controversy.^[7][8][9] Although Sonia is actually the fifth foreign-born person to be leader of the Congress Party, she is the first since independence in 1947.^[10]

Early life[link]

Sonia Gandhi's birthplace, 31, Contrada Maini (Maini street), Lusiana, Italy (the house on the right)

She was born to Stefano and Paola Maino in Contrada Màini ("Maini quarter/district"), at Lusiana,^[11][12] a little village 30 km from Vicenza in Veneto,^[13] Italy, where families with the family name "Màino" have been living for many generations.^[14][15][16] She spent her adolescence in Orbassano,^[17] a town near Turin, being raised in a traditional Roman Catholic family and attending a Catholic school. Her father, a building mason, died in 1983.^[18] Her mother and two sisters still live around Orbassano.^[19]

In 1964, she went to study English at the Bell Educational Trust's language school in the city of Cambridge. She met Rajiv Gandhi, who was enrolled in Trinity College at the University of Cambridge in 1965 at a Greek restaurant (the Varsity Restaurant) while working there as a waitress to make ends meet.^[20][21] Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi married in 1968, following which she moved into the house of her mother-in-law and then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.^[22]

The couple had two children, Rahul Gandhi (born 1970) and Priyanka Vadra (born 1972). Despite belonging to the influential Nehru family, Sonia and Rajiv avoided all involvement in politics. Rajiv worked as an airline pilot while Sonia took care of her family.^[23] When Indira was ousted from office in 1977 in the aftermath of the Indian Emergency, the Rajiv family moved abroad for a short time.^{[citation needed]} When Rajiv entered politics in 1982 after the death of his younger brother Sanjay Gandhi in a plane crash on 23 June 1980, Sonia continued to focus on her family and avoided all contact with the public.^[24]

Political career[link]

Wife of the Prime Minister[link]

Sonia Gandhi's involvement with Indian public life began after the assassination of her mother-in-law and her husband's election as Prime Minister. As the Prime Minister's wife she acted as his official hostess and also accompanied him on a number of state visits.^{[citation needed]} In 1984, she actively campaigned against her husband's sister-in-law Maneka Gandhi who was running against Rajiv in Amethi. At the end of Rajiv Gandhi's five years in office, the Bofors Scandal broke out. Ottavio Quattrocchi, an Italian business man believed to be involved, was said to be a friend of Sonia Gandhi, having access to the Prime Minister's official residence.^[25] In 1980, her name appeared in the voter's list for New Delhi prior to her becoming an Indian Citizen, when she was still holding Italian Citizenship.^[26] It was a violation of Indian Laws.^[27] When she did acquire Indian Citizenship in April 1983, the issue cropped up again, as her name appeared on the 1983 voter's list when the deadline for registering had been in January 1983.^[28][29]

Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said that she surrendered her Italian passport to the Italian Embassy on 27 April 1983. Italian nationality law did not permit dual nationality until 1992. So, by acquiring Indian citizenship in 1983, she would automatically have lost Italian citizenship.^[30]

Congress President[link]

With the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev during his State visit in December 2010.

After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi and her refusal to become Prime Minister, the party settled on the choice of P. V. Narasimha Rao who became leader and subsequently Prime Minister. Over the next few years, however, the Congress fortunes continued to dwindle and it lost the 1996 elections. Several senior leaders such as Madhavrao Sindhia, Rajesh Pilot, Narayan Dutt Tiwari, Arjun Singh, Mamata Banerjee, G. K. Moopanar, P. Chidambaram and Jayanthi Natarajan were in open revolt against incumbent President Sitaram Kesri and quit the party, splitting the Congress into many factions.^{[citation needed]}

In an effort to revive the party's sagging fortunes, she joined the Congress Party as a primary member in the Calcutta Plenary Session in 1997 and became party leader in 1998.^[31]

In May 1999, three senior leaders of the party (Sharad Pawar, P. A. Sangma, and Tariq Anwar) challenged her right to try to become India's Prime Minister because of her foreign origins. In response, she offered to resign as party leader, resulting in an outpouring of support and the expulsion from the party of the three rebels who went on to form the Nationalist Congress Party.^[32]

Within 62 days of joining as a primary member, she was offered the party President post which she accepted.^{[citation needed]} She contested Lok Sabha elections from Bellary, Karnataka and Amethi, Uttar Pradesh in 1999. In Bellary she defeated veteran BJP leader, Sushma Swaraj.^[33] In 2004 and 2009, she was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh.^[34]

Leader of the Opposition[link]

Sonia Gandhi welcomes U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to her residence, 10 Janpath in New Delhi, India, 2009.

She was elected the Leader of the Opposition of the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.^{[citation needed]} When the BJP-led NDA formed a government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee, she took the office of the Leader of Opposition. As Leader of Opposition, she called a no-confidence motion against the NDA government led by Vajpayee in 2003.^{[citation needed]}

She holds the record of having served as Congress President for 10 years consecutively.^{[citation needed]}

2004 elections and aftermath[link]

In the 2004 general elections, Gandhi launched a nationwide campaign, criss-crossing the country on the Aam Aadmi (ordinary man) slogan in contrast to the 'India Shining' slogan of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) alliance. She countered the BJP asking "Who is India Shining for?". In the election, she won by a large margin in the Rae Bareilly constituency. Following the unexpected defeat of the NDA, she was widely expected to be the next Prime Minister of India. On 16 May, she was unanimously chosen to lead a 15-party coalition government with the support of the left, which was subsequently named the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

The defeated NDA protested once against her 'foreign origin' and senior NDA leader Sushma Swaraj threatened to shave her head and "sleep on the ground", among other things, should Sonia become prime minister.^[7] The NDA also claimed that there were legal reasons that barred her from the Prime Minister's post.^[35] They pointed, in particular, to Section 5 of the Indian Citizenship Act of 1955, which they claimed implied 'reciprocity'. This was contested by others^[29] and eventually the suits were dismissed by the Supreme Court of India.^[36]

A few days after the election, Gandhi appointed Manmohan Singh as prime minister. Her supporters compared it to the old Indian tradition of renunciation,^[37] while her opponents attacked it as a political stunt.^[38]

UPA Chairperson[link]

Sonia Gandhi speaking at World Economic Forum's India Economic Summit 2006

On 23 March 2006, Gandhi announced her resignation from the Lok Sabha and also as chairperson of the National Advisory Council under the office-of-profit controversy and the speculation that the government was planning to bring an ordinance to exempt the post of chairperson of National Advisory Council from the purview of office of profit. She was re-elected from her constituency Rae Bareilly in May 2006 by a margin of over 400,000 votes.

As chairperson of the National Advisory Committee and the UPA, she played an important role in making the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Right to Information Act into law.^[39][40]

She addressed the United Nations on 2 October 2007, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary which is observed as the international day of non-violence after a UN resolution passed on 15 July 2007.^[41]

Under her leadership, India returned the Congress-led-UPA to a near majority in the 2009 general elections with Manmohan Singh as the Prime Minister. The Congress itself won 206 Lok Sabha seats, which was the highest total by any party since 1991.

Personal life[link]

Sonia Gandhi in 2009

Sonia is the widow of late Rajiv Gandhi, elder son of Indira Gandhi. She is a practising Christian.^[42] There has been considerable media speculation for over a decade about their future role in the Congress. After a period of uncertainty, both Rahul and Priyanka became primary members of the Congress party. While Priyanka has so far restricted herself to organising her mother's election campaigns and taking care of Sonia's constituency, Rahul Gandhi has gone on to take formal charge as General Secretary of the Congress Party. He is also currently head of the Youth Congress.

In August 2011, she underwent a successful surgery for some ailment in the US. It has been widely speculated in the media that the surgery took place at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Newspapers reported that she returned^[43] to India on 9 September after her treatment.

Honours, awards and international recognition[link]

Gandhi was named the third most powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine in the year 2004^[44] and was ranked 6th in 2007.^[45] In 2010, Gandhi ranked as the ninth most powerful person on the planet by Forbes Magazine.^[46] She was also named among the Time 100 most influential people in the world for the years 2007^[47] and 2008.^[48] The British magazine New Statesman listed Sonia Gandhi at number 29 in their annual survey of "The World's 50 Most Influential Figures" in the year 2010.^[49]

Portrayals and coverage in books[link]

Books[link]

• Sonia Gandhi – An Extraordinary Life, An Indian Destiny (2011), a biography written by Rani Singh.

See also[link]

• List of political families
• List of Italians

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• S. R. ET AL. BAKSHI (1998) Sonia Gandhi, The President of AICC South Asia Books. ISBN 81-7024-988-0
• Rupa Chaterjee (1999) Sonia Gandhi: The Lady in Shadow Butala. ISBN 81-87277-02-5
• C. Rupa, Rupa Chaterjee (2000) Sonia Mystique South Asia Books. ISBN 81-85870-24-1
• Moro, Javier "El sari rojo" (Ed. Seix Barral, 2008) "Il sari rosso" (Il Saggiatore, 2009)

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	India portal

Official

• Sonia Gandhi official Indian National Congress Party profile
• Parliamentary profile at India.gov.in

Others

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sonia Gandhi

• Profile at BBC News
• Profile at Forbes
• Sonia Gandhi collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Sonia Gandhi collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Sonia Gandhi collected news and commentary at The Wall Street Journal
• Sonia Gandhi collected news and commentary at Al Jazeera English
• Sonia Gandhi at the Internet Movie Database
• Works by or about Sonia Gandhi in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Works by Sonia Gandhi on Open Library at the Internet Archive
• Sonia Gandhi at the Notable Names Database

v t e Indian National Congress Presidents Bonnerjee · Naoroji · Tyabji · Yule · Wedderburn · Mehta · Charlappa · Bonnerjee · Dadabhai Naoroji · Webb · Banerjea · Sayani · Nair · A. M. Bose · Dutt · Chandavarkar · Wacha · Banerjea · L. Ghosh · H. Cotton · Gokhale · Naoroji · R. Ghosh · (1907-1908) Malaviya · Wedderburn · Dar · Mudholkar · Bahadur · B. N. Bose · Sinha · Mazumdar · Besant · Malaviya · Imam · M. Nehru · Rai · C. Vijayaraghavachariar · Khan · Das · M. Ali · A. K. Azad · M. Gandhi · Naidu · Iyengar · Ansari · M. Nehru · J. Nehru · S. V. Patel · Malaviya (1932-1933) · Nellie Sengupta · Rajendra Prasad (1934-1935) · J. Nehru (1936-1937) · S. C. Bose · (1938-1939) · A. K. Azad (1940-1946) · Kripalani · Sitaramayya (1948-1949) · Tandon · J. Nehru (1951-1954) · Dhebar (1955-1959) · I. Gandhi · Reddy (1960-1963) · K. Kamaraj (1964-1967) · S. Nijalingappa (1968-1969) · J. Ram (1970-1971) · D. Sharma (1972-1974) · Baruah (1975-1977) · I. Gandhi (1978-1984) · R. Gandhi (1985-1991) · Narasimha Rao (1992-1996) · Kesri (1996-1998) · S. Gandhi (1998-present) Frontal Organizations Seva Dal · Mahila Congress · Indian Youth Congress · National Students Union of India · Indian National Trade Union Congress Internal Organizations Congress President · Working President · Congress Working Committee · Central Election Committee · All India Congress Committee · Pradesh Congress Committee Pradesh committees Andhra Pradesh PCC · Assam PCC · Bihar PCC · Chhatisgarh PCC · Delhi PCC · Gujarat PCC · Haryana PCC · Himachal Pradesh PCC · Jammu & Kashmir PCC · Jharkhand PCC · Karnataka PCC · Kerala PCC · Maharashtra PCC · Madhya Pradesh PCC · Meghalaya PCC · Mizoram PCC · Mumbai PCC · Nagaland PCC · Orissa PCC · Pondicherry PCC · Punjab PCC · Rajasthan PCC · Tamil Nadu PCC · Tripura PCC · Uttarakhand PCC · Uttar Pradesh PCC · West Bengal PCC History Statewise Election history of Congress Party · Nehru-Gandhi family · Congress Radio · 10 Janpath · The Emergency · Bofors scandal · INA Defence Committee · Indian National Congress (Organisation) · Breakaway parties