What is it about the BJP and Italian women? For decades, the party seemed obsessed with Sonia Gandhi, rejecting all suggestions that she had chosen to adopt India as her home and focusing on her Italian-ness instead. While Sonia Gandhi’s country of birth kept the leadership busy, the Twitter scum took the line that any white woman must have had loose morals. And so, BJP supporters on social media called her a barmaid or ‘Italian bar dancer.’
I don’t know how Sonia Gandhi felt about these insults and abuses because she never responded. But then, neither did any BJP leader. Nobody of any consequence told the rabble that their language was misogynistic and far beyond the pale.Sonia Gandhi is a much less visible figure these days, so the online mob has lost interest in her. Instead they are obsessed — this time, in an adoring sort of way — with Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy. In much of the world, Meloni’s rise to power was greeted with (possibly unfair) commentary about her fascist roots. But in India, this rarely comes up. And even if it did, it might well be treated as a badge of honour by some of those who post about her.
The current Right wing obsession with Meloni is predicated on her relationship with Narendra Modi. There is no doubt that the leaders get on and BJP supporters talk admiringly about ‘Melodi’, the name given to the ‘pairing’. The Indian Prime Minister even playfully gifted Melody chocolates to his Italian counterpart and, just as playfully, some of his supporters took to giving affectionate familial nicknames to Meloni.Insult and Indian politics
