Renaissance Woman

FOR Congressmen who have long been chanting the hymn ‘Sonia lao desh bachao’,fulfillment came on Saturday, March 14. It was a day marked by drama, but for a sizeablenumber of partymen, nothing could have been more gratifying than the announcement bySharad Pawar that Mrs G had at last decided to take over the presidentship of the113-year-old party from the much-discredited Sitaram Kesri. Sonia’s entry was inkeeping with the prescription of the resident doctors of 24, Akbar Road that the return ofthe Nehru-Gandhi dynasty was the only panacea for a party on a downslide.

The atmosphere at the AICC headquarters was electric. For the moment,Congressmen were too excited for either introspection or evaluation. They see inSonia’s ‘historic announcement’ and the exit of Kesri the beginning of anew and welcome phase. No one seemed to doubt her capabilities as the CEO of the party.Even the wranglings in the party were brushed aside. As Congress leader Salman Khursheedput it: "There can be no quarrel in the Congress now. The hierarchy has beenestablished. At the top of the pyramid we now have someone and everyone else will fall inplace. Also, there would be no doubt as to who other parties should talk to when it comesto forming an alliance. The Congress now has one voice." The CWC has passed aresolution that Sonia’s appointment would be ratified by an AICC session to beconvened on April 4.

Even as Sonia stepped in, a new order seemed to be fast evolving. Atthe core of it is Pawar who looks a clear choice for the leader of the CongressParliamentary Party (CPP). While the younger crop of Congress leaders hope to find a voicewith Sonia, old loyalists like Arjun Singh and Oscar Fernandes are not expected to beforgotten either. Incidentally, many party MPs had been calling upon Sonia in the lastfortnight and imploring her to change the old guard—typified by Kesri—which hadnot only been unable to galvanise the party but failed to strike the right alliances withregional parties in the run-up to the elections.

The fact that Kesri was out of favour with 10, Janpath as well as senior party leaderswas evident at the March 14 meeting of the CWC. The overwhelming majority was for Kesri toquit and allow Sonia to step in. The beleaguered Congress president left in a huff andlater told the press that Sonia’s induction was "not constitutional" and hehad not resigned but only offered to resign. His was the voice of an embittered man whofelt that after putting in decades for the Nehru-Gandhi family he had been forced to makea humiliating exit. But Kesri has very few friends in the party with even the lastCongressman rallying around Sonia and the man once dubbed old man-in-a-hurry now says heis in no mood to fight. "I am not for confrontation. At the age of 83 I am not in aposition to fight. I can only go to the people," he said.

But what of Sonia’s organisational and managerial skills? Herfirst few months are bound to have a tentative touch. She has no experience in dealingwith the day-to-day affairs of the party. At best she has only acted as an arbitrator inthe squabbles between Congressmen. Now the party needs to be rebuilt and she would have todepend on a group of senior leaders to advise her and execute her decisions. This cliqueis likely to emerge as the new power centre. While Pawar will enjoy an elevated status inthe new dispensation after his electoral success and rout of the Shiv Sena on home turfMaharashtra, there is talk within sections of the party that 10, Janpath would like torein in the Maratha leader as well. The coterie, of course, will see to this.

The Pawar camp has been very careful in the last two weeks to reiteratethat its leader has the blessings of 10, Janpath. The Maratha leader has been calling onSonia and seeking her advice ever since elections were announced. The growing stature ofPawar is cause for concern for his rivals in the party who would be only too happy to seehim sidelined.

Observers point out that Sonia’s entry is a return to the RajivRaj. Since May 1991, rarely has the AICC headquarters seen such a gathering of past andpresent Congressmen including former MPs and ministers. Among them were old-timers likeS.B. Chavan, Sudhakarrao Naik, H.K.L. Bhagat. Even Mani Shankar Aiyar who had quit theparty, only to flirt with political extinction, was back and welcomed by friends.Sycophancy was at its peak. Despite the short notice, within two hours of the announcementthat Sonia had taken the plunge, local Congressmen had assembled a crowd of workers beforethe party office. A band was in attendance to belt out the ‘Sonia aao deshbachao’ theme song of the election campaign.

Sonia steps in at a crucial time, just after the Congress weathered anelection that nobody wanted and was going through an exercise in government formation thatnobody seemed sure of how to handle. So when AIADMK chief Jayalalitha finally relented andsent her letter of acceptance to the BJP on March 14, almost everyone breathed a sigh ofrelief. The Congress, which was trying to solve its internal problems by getting itspresident to ‘accept’ his own resignation earlier in the week, saw but a slenderchance at forming a government. Senior Congress leaders Pawar, Manmohan Singh, MadhavraoScindia and Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy who had accompanied Kesri to meet the President made itclear that the party was only exploring possibilities but could not stake its claim toform the government.

This was in keeping with Sonia’s advice to par-tymen to approachgovernment formation with a measure of caution. The Congress has adopted a ‘wait andwatch’ policy—it will let the BJP form the government and then pull the rug oncethe Vajpayee government begins to show signs of cracking. This is one reason why the March14 CWC did not even discuss the formation of any government in which the Congress wouldhave participation. For the moment the party seems more than content to sit in theOpposition benches.

Indeed, ever since the poll results, there has been a great deal ofscepticism in the Congress. Says Pranab Mukherjee: "We would like to form agovernment, but where are the numbers? Are members of the UF going to go with us?"Almost a similar question was thrown by Pawar: "If they (the BJP) have the numbers,let them form a government." Well-placed party sources say Pawar was and is keen toform the government but such plans have been put on hold for the moment. The Congressleader is, however, said to be keeping his lines of communication open with MamataBanerjee as well as Jayalalitha. Interestingly, before the elections, Pawar had worked outthe modalities of an alliance with the AIADMK which got shot down by the party highcommand. But for now it’s time for the Congress not to push itself into the limelightin a hurry. Scindia told Outlook that the time had come to "sit in the Opposition andtake stock of the situation."

The meeting to elect a CPP leader on March 16 is regarded as crucial.According to well-placed sources, Pawar is keen on the job. In the mother of all hungParliaments, it will not be long before an opportunity to pull down the governmentpresents itself. And if that were to happen, Pawar would be in line for primeministership. Consequently, there are many Congressmen who are bound to opposePawar’s candidature and prefer Sonia to keep Pawar in check. Unfortunately, thoughsome of them may be close to 10, Janpath, their connection with the electorate is lessconvincing and Pawar, along with Reddy, is regarded as among the few Congress leaders whohave a mass base in their respective states.

Sonia’s entry has revitalised the party cadre and state unitsacross the country have been rejoicing the return of the dynasty, but there still remainsome unanswered questions. No one quite knows Sonia’s style of functioning. All alongshe has remained inaccessible to most Congressmen except the senior leadership. Will shebreak this tradition and make her presence felt at 24, Akbar Road or will sheremote-control her operations from 10, Janpath? If her manner of approaching the gigantictask she has chosen fail to click, the Congress hopes in her may well turn out ephemeral.But for now, it seems like renaissance season.