These facts are the more shameful in that there was a dramatic shift in the political power equation in India in this past election which promises to have repercussions for, perhaps, decades to come.

India is the world's largest democratic nation. In the recent elections SIX HUNDRED MILLION registered voters went to the polls. Ballot boxes were transported by donkey, fishing boat, mountain porter, train, plane and automobile.

Stop and let yourself imagine an undertaking of this magnitude and you might begin to understand why Indian could resent the attitude of the rest of the world towards its affairs, and why the nuclear tests were such an event of national pride. As part of the Nuclear Club, Indian --- misguided or not --- gained a new moment in the sun, and sent notice to the rest of the world that it meant to be taken seriously.

Meanwhile, against this backdrop, something even more dramatic was taking place. The Congress Party, more and more considered corrupt, irrelevant, and passe' was rejuvenated by the entrance into its electoral politics of Sonia Gandhi, the reclusive widow of the revered and castigated late leader Rajiv Gandhi, the daughter-in-law of longtime ruler Indira Gandhi. Wherever Sonia, Rajiv's Italian spouse, campaigned crowds in the tens of thousands were guaranteed to appear. In one instance, travelling by jet and helicopter, Sonia Gandhi visited a hundred and thirty-eight constituences across the length and breadth of India in a mere 34 days. It was a feat reminiscent of Super Tuesday in the U.S. presidential primaries. Yet, for reasons the G21 has brought up many times before, little if anything was written about her dramatic emergence in the Mouthpiece Press here in the United States. It is as though these events never occurred. The BBC produced some significant coverage on Mrs. Gandhi, but that was it outside of the Indian press.

During the election, India Today, that country's largest weekly declared that Sonia Gandhi's campaign was "....unparalleled in electoral history...." The fact is, after the elections, the Congress Party's Working Committee declared, "the Congress Party owes its electoral gains[28 more seats than in the 1996 elections -- Ed.] to her alone."

Your G21 is of the opinion that this is an important emerging story that our readers need to be aware of and follow. Like our coverage of the Kidnapping-Ransom phenomenon over the years, the Troubles in Northern Island, and future of Cambodia, this is a story which we are making a long-term commitment to revisit as it unfolds. The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty of India is much like our own tragic Kennedy dynasty in the U.S. Assassination, great power and its abuse, and political innovation are part of both stories. So are hubris, soft-sightedness, fatal errors and scandals.

For example, after the death of Sanjay Gandhi, Indira Gandhi's heir-apparent, the Prime Minister tried to force the reticent Rajiv into politics, though his wife Sonia resisted strenuously. Rajiv, meanwhile, upon taking up the family mantel as leader of the Congress Party, had a short-lived administration riven by scandals, most spectacularly the Bofors scandal. During Rajiv's administration the Indian government awarded a weapons contract to the Swedish firm, Bofors. In an investigation that has not ended yet, it has already been proven that millions of dollars were funnelled into five overseas accounts. The main fixer in the Bofors deal had close ties to Rajiv and Sonia, and investigators have learned that money from these five accounts were funnelled into a sixth, hidden account which many in India believe to have been Rajiv and Sonia's.

Other criticisms of Sonia Gandhi revolve around her vindicativeness, her extreme secrecy, and that she arrogantly looks at the Congress Party as the "family heirloom" of her children, Priyanka and Rahul, now in their late twenties and poised to claim the legacy.

Priyanka, in fact, is rumored to have written most of Mrs. Gandhi's speeches in this last election, all of which ended as did her mother-in-law Indira's by repeating the words "Jai Hind!"["Hail India!"] three times.