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Meeting Mr Maino"After Sonia's marriage, everyone thinks we have got rich. But the marriage has

been an expensive thing for us."

Jawid Laiq

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THE sparkling white colonnades of 10, Janpath are a long way in distance, time and

the trappings of power from 14, Via Bellini, a nondescript house in a slushy lane of

Orbassano, a grey industrial town on the outskirts of Turin, the city which exports Fiat

cars and machines. That house was proudly built by the rough-hewn hands of Stefano

Maino, a building worker who after years of effort had established a small

construction business by the 1960s.

He took special pride in his work-worn hands and in the dignity of labour which had

motivated him to build a bungalow for his wife and three daughters, Sonia, Nadia and

Anoushka. He waved those hands before me some 20 years ago in Orbassano to

illustrate that he was a self-made man who had created all that he owned with his own

labour. He wished to disprove the allegations made even then that the Maino family

had grown rich due to its Gandhi connection.

At that time, in the autumn of 1977, shortly after the Emergency, Maino was not too

happy about his daughter Sonia's Indian connections. He resignedly noted: "After

Sonia's marriage everyone thinks we have got rich and made free trips to India. But

we have paid for everything ourselves. Sonia's marriage has been an expensive thing

for us." He also mentioned that Sonia, her husband and children and their ayah, too,

used to descend on Orbassano during the summer holidays, causing considerable

expense. On the other hand, he claimed he had helped India's foreign exchange

position by encouraging several of his friends to visit India as tourists.

Maino had absolute faith in the integrity of his son-in-law Rajiv. He was confident

"that Rajiv has no connections in the Boeing or any other deal. Rajiv is not in the least

interested in such matters". As for the corruption charges then being made againstSanjay Gandhi, "he is just a boy and businessmen and politicians may have used

him.... Sanjay is a young politician and not very experienced. That is why he has not

been successful."

Indira Gandhi's arrest in 1977 on the orders of the then home minister, Charan Singh,

had worried Maino, but not much. He was mainly worried about the future of his

grandchildren, Priyanka and Rahul. He glanced at the silver-framed portrait of Indira

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Gandhi with Priyanka and Rahul and declared: "Mrs Gandhi is the only person in

India who can do good things for India."

Apart from the portrait, the other prominent feature of the dimly-lit front room of

Maino's house was the collection of leather-bound speeches and writings of Benito

Mussolini. I looked pointedly at them. Without batting an eyelid, Maino declared hisunwavering loyalty to Mussolini and Italy's 'admirable' fascist past. The words

streamed forth. The current Italian government was composed of a bunch of traitors

who had betrayed Mussolini and the Fatherland. All the modern Italian political

parties were hopeless, except the neo-fascist front. What Italians needed was

compulsory sterilisation. Indira Gandhi smiled benignly out of the silver-frame.

Nadia, Sonia's petite and pretty younger sister, sitting beside her father, looked

decidedly embarrassed.

That did not stop Stefano Maino's frank and forthright expression of his views on life

and politics. After all, he had proudly fought against the Russian Reds alongsideHitler's Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in World War II. The bold and direct manner

of the soldier remained with him. I felt a tinge of sadness when this blunt and

straightforward man died a few years ago. Perhaps, he is up there somewhere,

directing his daughter to shed her self-imposed solitude and sophistry, and to launch a

bold electoral blitzkrieg on the Indian people.

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Filed In:Authors: Jawid Laiq

People: Stefano Maino | Sonia Gandhi

Section: International

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