EDITORIAL
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The reluctant politician
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Article published on 9/3/2010 11:55:28 PM IST
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She was the reluctant politician forced under intense circumstances after the brutal assassinations of her late mother-in law Indira and later her husband late Rajiv Gandhi, to take the reins of a party that was almost driven into the pages of history. And when she reluctantly did, the going was more than any ordinary person could have bargained for. But Sonia Gandhi, who was elected for the fourth consecutive term as the president of the All India Congress Committee, proved she had not only the mettle but also the patience and resilence to fight enemies within and beyond the party. A three-time Lok Sabha MP from Rae Barelli, she officially took charge of the 125-year-old Congress party as its President in 1998, becoming the fifth member of the Nehru-Gandhi family and the eighth foreign-born person to become the party chief. There were those like P.A. Sangma, who unabashedly vowed never to accept a ‘foreigner’ as the prime minister of the country and this was his one-point agenda not only for leaving the Congress alongwith Sharad Pawar. Sangma ‘s anti-Sonia agenda drove him closer than he thought, towards the BJP. Like him, Uma Bharti, Sushma Swaraj and George Fernandes took their anti-Sonia tirade beyond the realms of sanity, even to the point of sounding ridiculous. But despite all these personal attacks Sonia was not deterred and went on on a contact campaign with the masses who responded by thrashing the BJP-NDA in 2003 and again in 2009. When Sonia was urged to head the first UPA government, Sushma Swaraj even went to the extent of threatening to resign from parliament and even get herself tonsured. Her greatest and most admirable stroke was her bold act of handing over the reins of office that was by virtue hers, to an able and amiable Dr. Manmohan Singh, thereby disarming her opponents and depriving them of the ammunition on her foreign origin. By refusing the Prime Ministership, Sonia took the wind out of the sails of BJP’s single-point agenda; should a foreigner become the country’s prime minister?. With one deft stroke in 2004, Gandhi turned herself from outsider to future Prime Minister to the paragon of sacrifice. Even P.A. Sangma, who dreamt big things for himself was rudely wakened from his anti-Sonia tirade and eventually sought to reconcile with her. In the height of her second successive poll victory, Sonia accepted Sangma’s conciliatory offer and responded. Today, as the longest serving president of the All India Congress Committee, Sonia Gandhi is also the most powerful woman in Indian politics. She also had a minor setback when she was embroiled in the Office of Profit controversy .Sonia did what was right and resigned from the Lok Sabha and also as Adviser of the National Advisory Council. According to electoral laws, an elected person cannot hold an office of profit (meaning paid posts). She was, however, re-elected from her constituency in Rae Bareli in May 2006 by a margin of over 4 lakh votes and has never looked back. In all these Sonia had proven time and again, that she has shouldered her responsibility with courage and dignity and truly deserves to be admired.
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