Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: Outlook
Date: May 31, 2004
Introduction: Thank God for it.
It saved India from plunging into permanent emotional upheaval.
Otherwise a very private individual,
Sonia Gandhi made an uncharacteristic admission in a pre-election TV interview.
Her sense of duty, she said, also stemmed from the silent expectations
of all those past generations of Nehrus and Gandhis whose portraits graced
her home. Their eyes seemed to follow her, prodding her to her duties.
Sitting through an incredible show
of fawning and flattery in the Central Hall of Parliament on the evening
of May 18, Sonia must have seen the portraits of national leaders hanging
on the panelled walls. Did their eyes stare down at her? Did she see them
recoil in horror at the inability of the Indian National Congress-an organisation
they too had nurtured-to find one Indian worthy of being prime minister?
Did they arouse her inner voice?
Let us, for the moment, rise above
our voting preferences.
India has reason to be beholden
to Sonia for rescuing it from an embarrassing and humiliating predicament.
There seemed no constitutional bar on her being sworn in as PM. In a fractured
Lok Sabha, she was the leader of the single largest party and had the unequivocal
endorsement of a majority of MPs. Election 2004 did not produce a categorical
winner but Sonia came closest to epitomising the anti-NDA verdict. The
top political job was hers for the asking.
Yet, Sonia Gandhi as the Indian
PM would have been a disturbing prospect. It would have resulted in an
India that would have been vertically split. It would have resulted in
an emotional schism, with a large number of people questioning her very
legitimacy and, by implication, that of the institution. At the worst of
times, India has never encountered such a situation.
The foreign origin issue was more
than a mere political divide between the Congress and the BJP. It affected
the very soul of India. To a section of cosmopolitan India, the manner
in which Sushma Swaraj planned to demonstrate her outrage may have seemed
unappetising. But the sheer starkness of a tonsured auntie-next-door undertaking
penance would have been traumatic. The spectacle of Uma Bharati relinquishing
her chief ministership and setting forth to mobilise Bharat against an
Italian interloper would also have unsettled India.
With Sonia as prime minister, India
would have been at odds with itself. It would have been an India in a state
of permanent emotional upheaval.
For the past fortnight, cellphones
were treated to a delicious array of Italian jokes. They drew sniggers
or became the subject of dinner table conversation. But underneath the
frivolity, middle-class India felt a sense of deep unease at having to
acknowledge an Italian-Indian Gandhi as its leader. For the moment, the
disquiet was masked in both mirth and bewilderment. Sooner or later, it
would have progressed to humiliation and shame. The inner voice of Sonia
Gandhi has stopped Indians from feeling small.
The inevitable anti-incumbency backlash
against a 'foreign' ruler would have been vicious. It would also have been
laced with visceral hate. The inner voice of Sonia Gandhi has saved India
from turning mean.
It is actually an intensely political
inner voice that has turned dilemma into advantage. Indians being suckers
for self- abnegation, Sonia's calculated "No" has transformed her from
a political leader to a deity. At one stroke, she has punctured the outrage
of all those who painted her as a calculating, power- hungry guardian of
her family's inheritance. Now, George Fernandes, Govindacharya, Narendra
Modi, Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharati are looking small and petty.
However, before we rush to denounce
the BJP and the entire Sangh parivar as a bunch of obscurantist, racist
and ill- mannered louts, it may be prudent to acknowledge one harsh truth.
The inner voice of Sonia Gandhi would not have spoken had the Sushmas and
Umas not provided a preview of the resistance she would encounter.As Sitaram
Yechury told The Telegraph, "She felt the BJP should not use her to create
divisions in the country."
Her inner voice proved a shrewd
political barometer of the incalculable damage she would do to her family's
inheritance and to her son's future prospects. By stepping aside from the
direct line of fire and positioning herself as Mother India, she has insulated
the Gandhi mystique from the vagaries of a turbulent coalition.
Manmohan Singh may or may not flounder.
If he does, the blame will not rest on the dynasty. Indeed, the Congress
will depend even more on Mata Sonia and her children to come to the rescue.
And if the venerable sardar performs a miracle, Sonia will have little
hesitation in calling a snap election, cashing in on her new image and
pave the way for the self- effacing Rahul to take the job she turned down.
Either way, Manmohan Singh is a
stopgap prime minister.
The inner voice of Sonia Gandhi
is never bereft of calculation. This year's theme is renunciation and she
has successfully sold the story to interviewers who have been overawed
into amnesia. Five years ago, standing in the forecourt of Rashtrapati
Bhavan, Sonia uttered those memorable words: "We have 272." It threw the
country into a tizzy, forced Mulayam Singh Yadav to flaunt his nationalism
and triggered the departure of Sharad Pawar and Purno Sangma from the Congress.
Was she not the prime ministerial candidate then?
Did she get herself chosen unanimously
as the UPA's prime ministerial candidate on May 16 merely to have a laugh
at the expense of H.K.S. Surjeet, Jyoti Basu, M. Karunanidhi and Laloo
Yadav? Did anyone then guess that her real aim was to save Uma Bharati's
job and Sushma Swaraj's hair?
This is not an opportune moment
to dissect the native cunning of Sonia's inner voice. This is the time
to thank invisible forces for making her Mother India rather than Madam
Prime Minister.
