Fact Checking Subramanian Swamy: Was Rahul Gandhi’s Maternal Grandfather Stefano Maino A Fascist?

Among the choicest invective hurled by the Congress party at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the word ‘fascist’ comes aplenty.

Since Prime Minister Modi’s rise in 2014, Rahul Gandhi has, on multiple occasions, referred to “BJP/RSS ideology” as fascist.

Over the years, Nehruvian establishment historians and Marxist writers have frequently cited a meeting betwen a little know ideologue of Hindutva movement B S Moonje (the first president of the Hindu Mahasabha ) and Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini as a clinching evidence of ‘fascist’ nature of the Sangh.

Recently, the scion of Nehru-Gandhi Parivar kicked-up a controversy when he insulted Veer Savarkar at a rally in New Delhi. The attack by the former Congress president earned the ire of Shiv Sena, the party’s new found ally Shiv Sena.

“BJP asked me to apologise for telling the truth. I am not Rahul Savarkar. I am Rahul Gandhi. I will not apologise. Nor will anyone from the Congress,” he said at the Bharat Bachao rally at Ramlila Maidan.

The grandson of Veer Savarkar, Ranjit Savarkar has said that he will file a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi.

"Rahul Gandhi's reaction is very unfortunate. He is habitual of making such comments," Ranjit Savarkar said.

"Rahul Gandhi had repeatedly alleged that my grandfather had apologised to the British, which is not true. My grandfather had only agreed to the terms and conditions of the British to get freed from jail. He never swore allegiance to the British," he said.

"Jawaharlal Nehru once called Shivaji a 'lootera' but later apologised for his comment. He is repeating his family's mistake," Ranjit Savarkar added.

However, for now, a defamation case wouldn’t be Gandhi’s biggest problems, but his own familial connection to Italian fascism. Several reports in mainstream Indian publications have highligted that Stefano Maino, maternal grandfather of Rahul Gandhi and father of interim Congress president, was not just ideologically inspired by Nazism but was also was served as a fascist footsoldier.

Sonia Gandhi’s father and Mussolini

In a 1998 Outlook article, Jawid Laiq reports on his visit to Sonia Gandhi’s parents in Italy, and his chats with Stefano Maino, the father of Sonia Gandhi.

Laiq writes that apart from a portrait of Indira Gandhi, whom Maino called “ the only person in India who can do good things for India", there were the collection of leather-bound speeches and writings of Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini ruled Italy as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1943 after establishing a fascist dictatorship. Mussolini also served as a role model for German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler who is known to have kept a bust of Mussolini in his office in the 1920s as he was plotting his own rise to power.

Maino had fought against the Russian Reds alongside Hitler's Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in World War II.

Laiq notes Maino’s “frank and forthright expression” of loyalty to fascism:

“Without batting an eyelid, Maino declared his unwavering 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.”

Maino also reportedly said that what Italians needed was compulsory sterilisation, a comment that inevitably reminds one of Indira Gandhi, Emergency and forced sterilisations.

In another 1998 report (published in the far-left Indian magazine Frontline owned by Chennai headquartered The Hindu group), noted journalist Vaiju Naravane, while visiting Orbassano, the town where Maino family lives, quotes one of the residents:

“[Stefano Maino] brought up his daughters in the old traditional way - church, confirmation, communion. Suspicious of foreigners, he was. I don't think Sonia's marriage pleased him very much. He certainly didn't go for it and the girl was given away by her maternal uncle Mario Predebon."

The resident also talks about Maino’s commitment to fascism.

It is very likely that Maino family would have been influenced by Mussolini’s Nazism. Like many staunch Catholic families in Italy, Mussolini was viewed as a person sent by God who would end the separation of church and state, restore many of the prerogatives of the church. Catholic Church and the fascist regime of Mussolini enjoyed a very close relationship.

"[Stefano Maino] came from Asiago not far from Vicenza in the Veneto region where nationalism was strong. He fought in the Russian campaign alongside the Germans and remained true to Fascist Nationalist ideology all his life.”

“I have even heard it said that he belonged to the Salo Republic that Mussolini set up in 1943 after he was ousted by his son-in-law. That is what people say but I have no confirmation of it. He even gave his three daughters Russian names in honour of the campaign in which he fought. He venerated the Duce. Many still do."

Also worth-noting in the report is an interesting comment by Orbassano's Mayor Graziano Dell'Acqua:

“..I wonder if we in Italy would accept a foreigner, and a woman at that, to take over a party which has symbolised the country's struggle against foreign rule and which continues to enjoy great, if diminished, support across the land. That a certain section of Indians have trusted her with their destiny speaks volumes for the tolerance of India.”

Naravane, in his report, also notes the neighbours of the Maino family describing their attitude of superiority because they were relatively well-off. The words “arrogant” and “nasty”, “typically rich, spoilt brat” pop up, along with a circumspect shop of Indian artefacts owned by Sonia’s sister with astoundingly high prices - too much for tiny, dusty industrial town of Orbassano.

While Rahul Gandhi has never shied away from leveraging his paternal political legacy as an electoral weapon, he has never broached on the toxic fascist ideological milieu which evidently shaped his maternal side.