Why it is premature to write Sonia Gandhi’s political obituary

If "retire" is the word Sonia Gandhi told reporters, one should not believe the veteran politician easily.

New Delhi, Dec 16: Sonia Gandhi's life is no less than a Bollywood potboiler. It has all the highs and lows a person in a lifetime could experience. From a beautiful and stylish wife of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to a strong and powerful woman politician, the 71-year-old matriarch of the Congress has seen both the pleasant and ugly sides of politics and life in general.

In all the good and bad seasons of her life, it's her calm stoicism which has created an aura surrounding her. For most of Indians, the former Congress president, who helmed the grand old party for the longest period of 19 years, remains a mystery.

In spite of being in the thick of politics for almost two decades, Sonia decided to remain behind the camera, literally. When she got the "golden opportunity" to become the Prime Minister of the country in 2004 after the Congress' win in the Lok Sabha elections, she decided to give the post to a party loyalist, Manmohan Singh.

Her renunciation of power made her a legend among her supporters. The widow of the former PM, who was assassinated in 1991, was finally accepted as a "daughter" of India, who has long been subjected to the videshi bahu (foreign daughter-in-law) jibe, a favourite term coined by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to attack her by highlighting her Italian origin.

Someone who was thought to be a political misfit because of her foreign birth, gender and being a widow of a former PM from an illustrious family, everything was going against Sonia. Many expressed their reservations of letting a foreigner, who can't even speak Hindi well, inside the political club of the country.

She took her own sweet time, thanks to the backing and loyalty of the Congress, to evolve as a shrewd and calculative politician like any other Indian-born leader we see around us.

It is not just her sarees, which she started wearing immediately after her wedding to Rajiv back in 1968, and mannerisms that give a sense of "Indianness" to her whole personality, Sonia adopted desi-style of politics to the hilt to prove all her critics wrong.

Thus when her opponents were left confused over her refusal to become the PM of the country, she decided to take control of the reins of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre from the backstage.

The two successive UPA governments at the Centre had PM Singh as its front man. The "remote" was in the hands of Sonia, who was the power centre for 10 long years from 2004-2014.

In his book, The Accidental Prime Minister--The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh, by journalist-author Sanjaya Baru, who was also the former media advisor to Singh, wrote that the former PM himself admitted that there was only one power centre in the UPA and that was the Congress president.

At one point, the book says Singh conceded the greater part of the PM's turf to Sonia and his senior colleagues. But foreign policy was one area he guarded for himself, including the nuclear deal with the United States (US).

In a way, Sonia was the virtual ruler of the country minus the responsibility to answer questions. When the second term of the UPA government was deep-drawn into various scams, it was Singh who was mercilessly attacked for allowing corruption to take place under his nose.

With the end of the Congress regime at the Centre in 2014, Sonia was often found missing from the public space. It is her illness which left her away from active politics and that is when she gave the baton of the grand old party to her son, Rahul Gandhi.

A day before Rahul took over as the Congress president, when reporters on Friday asked her about her future role in the party, Sonia said, "My role now is to retire."

Immediately after she made the comment, political experts stated that Sonia is going to take sanyas (renunciation) from politics. However, the party clarified that Sonia had retired from the president's post, not politics.

Congress' communication chief Randeep Surjewala tweeted: "Would sincerely request friends in the media to not rely upon innuendos. Smt. Sonia Gandhi has retired as president of Indian National Congress and not from politics. Her blessings, wisdom and innate commitment to Congress ideology shall always be our guiding light."

There has been a lot of speculation regarding her role in the party now. According to reports, Sonia, who has been heading the Congress Parliamentary Party, has also expressed her desire to step down from the post as well.

Reports indicate that the Congress is likely to create a post of patron for the 71-year-old leader, who has served as the longest president of the Congress.

If "retire" is the word she told reporters, one should not believe the veteran politician easily. She had earlier "sacrificed" the PM's post given to her on a platter, but was controlling the UPA government.

If anything that keeps her away from public life, is her health. The Congress is unlikely to let her retire 'so soon', as Sonia has always been seen as a moderate who shares good rapport with leaders of opposition parties like Mamata Banerjee and Lalu Prasad Yadav.

She is also the crisis manager of the Congress, every time the grand old party experiences any political turbulence. In future it is her experience to deal with problems with elan that would come handy for the Congress. For the time being, as the Congress enters a new era, retirement of Sonia can wait for some more time.

OneIndia News