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Revealed: PA Sangma?s Italian connection
His antipathy towards Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin is well known. But very few people know about PA Sangma's strong "Italian connection".
His antipathy towards Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin is well known. But very few people know about former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma's strong "Italian connection". The 'crusader' for the foreign origin issue owes his success to an Italian missionary, Father Busolin.
In Sangma's own words, "had it not been for him, I would have become a vagabond or a beggar."
The Italian missionary landed in Garo Hills district in 1950. "I still remember the day I met a bright small tribal boy (Sangma) in a lower primary school at Chapahati village. I knew that one day he would make his tribe proud," the 83-year-old Catholic priest told HT.
Sangma hailed from a poor farmer's family and was the youngest of six brothers and sisters. "I was very unhappy when I went to the village after a couple of years and found that Sangma had to drop out of school because of his father's death," Father Busolin of Don Bosco School, Tura, said.
He picked up Sangma from the streets of Chapahati and ensured he got proper education. Subsequently, Sangma was sent to a middle school in Dalu. And from there began the young Sangma's success journey to the power corridors of Delhi.
Interestingly enough, Father Busolin fully supports Sangma in his fight on the foreign origin issue. "Though I am an Italian by birth, I am not at all annoyed with his political agenda. My boy has done the right thing," he said.
He goes on:" Why does the country need to choose an Italian lady or for that matter a foreigner to be the prime minister? There are over 500 million women in India. Why cannot the people from among them?"
Sangma, while acknowledging his mentor's immense contribution, refuses to link it to the foreign origin issue. "That does not mean that I will not fight for the people of the country and let a foreigner become the prime minister".
"He has made me what I am today. But I still chose to protest against any person of foreign origin from becoming the prime minister primarily because I am a patriotic Indian," Sangma said minutes before filing his nominations in Tura.
