<i>Mala</i>-fide intentions?

Some politicians in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were intrigued after a quick scan of the Indian National Congress' front page advertisements on most of the leading newspapers on November 19. The Congress advertisements had a half-page photograph of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her birth anniversary. Gandhi, who was assassinated in October 1984, is shown prominently wearing a rudraksh mala or necklace that is considered auspicious among Hindus. The mala was said to have been given to her by a woman saint to keep the Congress leader away from harm. Nobody could remember either the Congress or the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government having used that particular photograph of Gandhi in advertisements on her birth anniversaries during the UPA's years in government. Some in the BJP were left wondering whether it was the Congress' effort to project Gandhi's pro-Hindutva image.