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Sonia Gandhi's entry - The Free Press Journal

Editorial ()
10 May 1997

Title : Sonia Gandhi's entry
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Free Press Journal
Date : May 10, 1997

After years of silence, hesitation and yes and no, Sonia Gandhi has decided to
cross the Rubic on. Her enrolment as a primary member of the Congress, as Kesri
has gone out of his way to underline primary member, has changed several power
equations in the Congress. In fact, the current power balance has been clearly
upset. Not only in the Congress but the very survival of the Gujral government
too. First the Congress scenario. A lot of Congressmen who cannot win an
election on their own and who have many things to fear, if not elected, have
already jumped on the Sonia bandwagon. All these Congressmen are unhappy with the
manner in which Sitaram Kesri is lording it over them and the party. Their very
future is linked to the kind of role that Sonia Gandhi is prepared to assume.
They see her as a Congress Working Committee member, if not the Congress
President, immediately. Announcing her entry into the Congress as a primary
member, the Congress spokesman has said that her very presence in the organisation
will "enthuse, galvanise and electrify" the rank and file. What he forgot to add
is that a number of Congress leaders are waiting for her to revive a demoralised
party whose popularity with the people is at rock bottom. Perhaps a member of the
Nehru family may still bear a modicum of the charisma of the three Prime Ministers
from the family. What is more, the manner in which her husband met with his death
is likely to create a sympathy wave, even as Rajiv Gandhi derived a lot of mileage
from the sympathy wave in the wake of the assassination of his mother. Even so, it
is a tall order for an inexperienced Sonia Gandhi. Corruption charges against
dozens of top Congress leaders, including a former Prime Minister, faction
fighting, self-aggrandisement and opportunistic manipulations of the basest kind
have brought the party under a permanent cloud. To say that the people have lost
faith in the Congress will be an understatement. Will Sonia Gandhi be able to
cleanse the Augean stables of the Congress?

Look at the manner in which she was welcomed by Kesri at the AICC office. In
spite of all his grandiloquent declarations about the need for Sonia Gandhi to
take over the reins of the party, Kesri did not think it necessary to come out and
meet her. He left it to Gadgil, the Congress spokesmen. Will she be made a
member of the Congress Working Committee? Will she take over as the President of
the party? All that Kesri would say is that she was only a primary member of the
party. What Arjun Singh said in this regard is more meaningful. It is -small
leaders like him who hanker after office. Sonia Gandhi has already become a power
centre, with so many hangers-on around her. Kesri knows it only too well. Unless
he plays his cards cautiously and pre-emptively, the self-seeking men behind her
would neutralise Kesri. A new power equation is in the offing. People like
Karunakaran, Arjun Singh, N. D. Tiwari, M. L. Fotedar and Buta Singh will see a
saviour of the Congress in her. Many who are currently hovering around Kesri will
soon change their loyalties. Sharad Pawar will wait and watch. And if the tide
is in favour of her, Pawar will not waste is time hobnobbing with Kesri. There
is a possibility that Moopanar will reconsider rejoining the Congress. If so, the
groundswell effect of the merger will affect the United Front government.

The future of the United Front will be affected in another way too. Prime
Minister Gujral has repeatedly said that he will not interfere in the ongoing
investigations into corruption cases, be it Bofors or JMM pay-off cases. The CBI
chief has just announced that enquiries into Bofors are almost complete and
charge-sheet will soon he framed. Will Rajiv Gandhi's name. appear in any context
in Bofors, though not as a receiver of pay-off? The interrogation of both Arun
Nehru and Arun Singh, both members of Rajiv Gandhi's council of ministers, has
been revealing. Arun Singh has gone on record to say that the most astounding
thing about the Bofors contract has been that the defence secretary, the army
chief, the minister concerned have all signed on the dotted line on the same day,
indicating the protruding presence of a hidden persuader. Such clearance of a
huge deal for arms on the same day by one and all is not normal. Arun Nehru,
one-time Rajiv Gandhi aide -and relative, has. been more outspoken. He has
referred to the payment of kick-backs into the Swiss accounts of Quattorocchi
whose connections with Sonia Gandhi go back to Italy. Interrogating Sonia Gandhi
is necessary, thinks Arun Nehru. It is said that CBI has no official who is ready
to accept this assignment. But if that decision is taken at all Congress will
certainly pull the rug from under the feet of the UF government. Before that,
Moopanar's Tamil Maanila Congress will walk out of the coalition. Two things are
not negotiable for Sonia Gandhi and the Congress. Her interrogation and the
mention of her slain husband even in passing in any Bofors charge-sheet will tell
the death-knell of the UF government. This is the significance of Sonia Gandhi's
entry into the Congress. Her timing is superb.


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