Congress under Sitaram Kesari indulged in unprincipled politics and withdrew support to Deve Gowda who had to resign. Then, the Congress supported the installation of I.K. Gujral government on April 21, 1997.
The oldest and the biggest party of the land, Indian National Congress was in turmoil. Various leaders were playing manipulative games to seize party posts. The very existence of the party was in danger.
With grave concern Sonia Gandhi viewed it. How could she tolerate the sacrifices of Indiraji and her husband Rajiv being insulted by petty-minded political leaders? She could not take it anymore. On March 23, 1997 Sonia Gandhi became primary member of the Congress Party. It was kept a secret. The next year on March 14, 1998 she took over the charge from Sitaram Kesari and became President of the party. Now Sonia Gandhi was openly in politics.
Her first target was to end groupism and factionalism within her party to inject discipline into leaders and workers. It was not an easy task. A great will power, determination and hard decisions were needed. Sonia Gandhi acted swift and fast.
Her firmness and independent style of functioning came as a rude shock for those old leaders who had thought that politically inexperienced Sonia would be dependent on them, a puppet on their strings. They only wanted Sonia in to serve as vote catching net for the party being the bahu of Nehru-Gandhi family. The hopes of such leaders were rudely dashed.
Meanwhile, fed up with internal strifes and contradictions Prime Minister I.K. Gujral recommended mid-term election.
The results went in favour of BJP to a large extent. On March 19, 1998 BJP leader A.B. Vajpayee was sworn in as Prime Minister. He formed National Democratic Alliance with other parties and proved majority in the house. Since the demolition of Babri Masjid the people had become polarised on communal lines. In viciously communalised atmosphere BJP was reaping the Hindu votes. Its success was due to that factor.
Sonia Gandhi was now the leader of the opposition in the parliament. In that role she was successfully giving tough time to the ruling party by bringing together anti-communal forces. Sonia Gandhi met AIADMK leader Jaylalita and the ladies confabulated. As a result Jaylalita withdrew her party’s support to Vajpayee government reducing it to minority.
But BJP thought it still had the numbers.
In April, 1999 after a lot of thought and strategic planning Sonia Gandhi introduced No-Confidence motion against Vajpayee government. Many leaders were not convinced about the wisdom in that move of Sonia Gandhi. But were dumbfounded when Vajpayee lost the confidence vote by a single vote.
The growing significance and power of Sonia Gandhi unnerved several Congress leaders who had narrow support base. She was eclipsing their political importance. They raised the bogey of Sonia’s foreign origin and claimed that her being the leader of opposition or Prime Minister could compromise the national security. The fact was that they themselves coveted prime minister’s post. Prominent among them were Sharad Pawar, P.A. Sangma, Tariq Anwar etc.
Sonia Gandhi had joined politics only to save the party and the country from the destruction. She was trying her best to revive the party and there were some leaders of the party who were putting a question mark on her Indianness. It hurt Sonia and she took a courageous decision.
On May 17, 1999 Congress Working Committee was holding a meeting. In a surprise move Sonia Gandhi read a letter on her behalf—
“This morning in the working committee meeting some of my colleagues questioned my leadership on the basis that I was born in another country instead of India. They think because of that my qualification and loyalty to the country was untrustworthy. So, considering my commitment to party and my duty demands that I resign from the presidentship of the party. It is true that I was not born in India but it is also a fact now India is my only country. I am an Indian and shall remain Indian till my last breath. My motherland India is dearer to me than my own life.”
It stunned the congressmen. She tendered the resignation. Confused leaders tried to placate her in many ways but Sonia Gandhi did not relent. She was deeply hurt. Walk out of the meeting, she did.
At last the Congress Working Committee suspended the detractors from the party for rebelling against the party President. The leaders rushed to 10, Janpath and persuaded Sonia Gandhi to withdraw her resignation. This time Sonia yielded. After the fall of Vajpayee government, the opposition failed to cobble up alternative government. The country again went through mid-term poll. Under Sonia Gandhi Congress made some progress but fell far short of gaining power. NDA again was able to form government under the prime ministership of A.B. Vajpayee. On October 13, 1999 Vajpayee was sworn in as P.M. for the third time. His government lasted only for 13 days on the first occasion.
Although Congress lost 1999 elections yet it had become a stable party under Sonia Gandhi and a purposefully focused outfit.
Politically matured Sonia
As the time went by Sonia Gandhi matured up surprisingly fast. There was no challenging voice to her in the party. There were some dissenting voices still but they never dared to raise voice or come out in open defiance. It was Sonia all the way in Congress.
Now Sonia Gandhi was the trump card of Congress and a ladder to power. The fate had played ironical game. She detested politics sometimes back and did not like her husband too meddling into politics. Rajiv too was an apolitical person. But Sanjay’s death changed the situation. Rajiv unwillingly had to come into politics only to assist his mother. But Indiraji’s assassination left no option before Rajiv but to accept the responsibility forced by circumstances on him. Sonia watched helplessly as her husband got sucked into politics. Then he died and situation arose when she was asked to join politics. She resisted and stayed aloof as clamour of pleas for her to play political role kept rising.
A Mahabharata scene was again building up. The destiny was playing the role of Krishna and Sonia was Arjuna who would not fight the battle of politics. Krishna kept reminding her of her duty as the heir of a political family. She must do her political karma without desiring rewards. To all the doubts and confusions of Arjuna, Krishna had the answer. The destiny was creating political situations where all the questions of Sonia Gandhi were echoing back convincing explanations. Even her conscience began to agree with those reasonings. Sonia had to do her political karma to honour dharma set by the sacrifices of Indiraji and Rajiv Gandhi. For total Indianisation Sonia had decided to do what the holy book of the land ‘Gita’ preached.
The anti-Sonia group left the party and formed a new party called ‘Nationalist Congress Party’. The first part of the name ‘Nationalist’ was meant to announce to the world that they were 100% bonafide India born Indians. There was nothig foreign about them, whereas the original Congress party now consisted of a big foreign element called Sonia Gandhi. The new party headed by Sharad Pawar began to challenge the parent party especially in Maharashtra where it had deep rootings due to sugar politics.
In the same process West Bengal Congress split. Mamta Banerji left Congress to form Trinamool Congress which meant ‘Grassroot Congress’. Mamta gained considerable success and did a great damage to Congress party. Her party emerged as the main opposition to ruling left government. Inspite of all this Congress under Sonia Gandhi continued to be main opposition party in the parliament. Without Congress under Sonia those splinter groups had no chance of coming to power at the centre. Sooner or later they will have to swallow their pride and arrange themselves around Sonia to come to power at the centre. That compromise they would have to make inspite of whatever they were saying against Sonia Gandhi.
The congressmen needed power as they had become accustomed to it over four decades. The power was as essential to them as oxygen to asthmatic patient. Their opposition to Sonia was also a part of power game although it was unrealistic. The alternate route to power was BJP, the party with so-called rabid communal agenda and it stood against everything Congress stood for. Even for all splinter parties the core factor was secularism. The Congress leaders who had left the party on Sonia’s foreign origin issue could not afford to go with BJP because it would mean they had derelicted the noble value of secularism along with Congress party for power. They would lose entire support base and ruin their political future. In this strange scenario the broken away Congress groups for their own existence and survival must position themselves around Sonia led Congress with their respective bargaining chips of whatever political value.
It was a political cameo. Every political outfit had its role out in the farce being played. Many of those broken away leaders doubted the capacity of Sonia Gandhi to lead them to power. According to their assessment Sonia Gandhi lacked the charisma of Indira Gandhi and youth attracting power of Rajiv Gandhi. She was no crowd puller. They also doubted Sonia had charisma that could be politically encashed. In their reckoning she was immature and inexperienced in political game plans. So, Congress under Sonia was not supposed to make it on its own. In that scenario the break away leaders thought they would always be in a position to dictate terms to the Congress party.
Later events proved they had grossly underestimated the power of Sonia factor and the amount of faith people had in the legacy of Nehru-Gandhi family she represented. Sonia Gandhi had her own brand of charisma spotlighted by her dignified conduct and grace. To aam aadmi Sonia Gandhi was embodiment of sincerity and honesty he could trust Her personality overawed the workers and leaders that evoked deep respect and undying loyalty. Those leaders who stayed with Congress under Sonia Gandhi had no doubt about her ability to win battles for them. They made correct judgement.
Congress party was to choose its president in November, 2000. Most of the people and workers thought Sonia Gandhi would be chosen unopposed as there was no sign of any visible challenge to her emerging winner in the party. But Congressmen were shocked when a senior Congress leader, Jitendra Prasada filed nomination papers against her. The voting took place and there were no surprises. Sonia Gandhi polled more than 99 percent votes and got firmly settled in the chair of presidentship. She no more was propped one or nominee of a group or faction. Now Sonia Gandhi was duly elected President of Congress party. Her position as boss of the party was legitimate and her decisions carried due authority.
In parliament Sonia Gandhi was leader of the opposition. She did not miss any opportunity to embarrass or corner the ruling group or party which happened to be BJP. Sonia Gandhi was proving a crafty opponent for the BJP. Now her language had an edge and arguments carried political logic. This political jnan (craft) Sonia had learnt in India.
When Sonia was apolitical she had been learning and imbibing the political craft. From examples of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi she learnt that politics was not all about grabbing power and ruling. The true politics was a clever symphony of education, resourcefulness, financial viability, fund raising craft, P.R. work, sociability, practicability, acceptability, likability, ethics, rich general knowledge, wit, oratory, charming manners, morality, analytical mindset and awareness. Before openly joining politics Sonia Gandhi had educated herself on above lines and put in a lot of thought.
According to a political analyst—’The political training process of Sonia started when, in the last phase of Narsimha Rao’s tenure she had begun holding regular discussions with specialists. Then, even the close ones could not see some definite plan behind this exercise. But the clear pointers were there in her meeting historian Romila Thapar, social scientist Zoya Hassan, legal expert P.N. Bhagwati, ex-intelligence chief M.K. Narayanan, political analyst Rajiv Bhargav a etc.
Sonia Gandhi was also discussing matters with economist Y.K. Alagh, psephologist Yogendra Yadav, foreign policy expert J.N. Dixit, L.M Singhvi, Natwar Singh and of course, the old hand Pranab Mukherji.
With prominent experts of every field Sonia Gandhi was interacting and hearing their qualified opinions. Thus, even before coming into politics she had done her homework and was ready at theoretical level. Very soon the unwavering loyalty of Congress workers and faithfuls provided her political life instant seasoning. And in little time Sonia Gandhi was walking all over as the sole challenge to the ruling outfit.
On March 17, 2001 in Bangalore Congress session Sonia Gandhi roared, “We must save the country from this shameful, corrupt and communal NDA government.” Sonia Gandhi was very serious about what she said. She promised Congress workers, “Tighten your belts for the struggle. I will gain back the golden days of the party.”
Sonia Gandhi’s winning political moves became very evident in 2002 assembly elections. Congress won in Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur to form governments. In Delhi Congress almost wiped out its main foe BJP in local body elections.
In Jammu and Kashmir National Conference was in power and it was a part of NDA
So, Sonia Gandhi formed alliance with Mehbooba Mufti’s PDP (People’s Democratic Party). The alliance won. Farookh Abdulla (NC) got dethroned.
On March 25, 2002 speaking on POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act), a patently anti-people black law in parliament, Sonia said, “In the form of POTA the government has repressive tool in its hands. There is a full possibility that NDA government would use it to torment political opponents, religious minorities, communities, weaker sections and trade unions.”
Meanwhile, in Gujarat a train carrying Hindu karsevaks (volunteers) was set on fire or caught fire. A large number of them were burnt to death. In retaliation the Hindu fanatic mobs in collusion with elements of Modi government of BJP went around killing Muslims and burning them to death in their homes. The police gave little protection. The Vajpayee government at centre too acted indifferent and just lamented instead of taking concrete steps to stop the carnage.
Sonia Gandhi taunted at Vajpayee, “It does not behove a Prime Minister to watch silently as people of a particular community continue to be burnt to death in one of the states.
The Prime Minister of a country has full responsibility of the welfare of the people. Prime Minister is protector of the people. You bowed to your party and those communal organisations that support it. It is no good thing. You must wake up. The hour of decision has come before you.”
Her hitting speech made PM Vajpayee squirm under his skin. Smitten by Sonia’s words Vajpayee lost his cool and uttered some undignified words never expected of him.
Inspite of the bloodshed Modi government of BJP won December, 2002 Gujarat assembly elections in highly communalised atmosphere. BJP leaders exulted and mocked at Sonia Gandhi and Congress. The fanatic elements of BJP construed that communalism was the ticket to success. But they proved wrong. Infact, BJP had won a state but lost the country. The Gujarat communal carnage had irretrievably tarnished the image of Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) over rest of the country that was going to reflect in parliamentary elections. It tried to play ‘Modi Card’ in Himachal Pradesh too but got defeated. There Congress regained power.
The victory in Himachal energized the Congress party. Sonia Gandhi correctly sensed that the people had now realised the dangers of communal politics and were ready for return to secularism.
Encouraged by positive signs Sonia Gandhi at once plunged into the task of uniting all the secular and anti-communal forces. The neutrals were also invited to join battle against ruling coalition. The Congress being the largest opposition party became a rallying point. The biggest plus point was that opposition was being generalled by Sonia Gandhi, now a proven charismatic leader.
Shopping Cart