Well, consider the advantage that chairpersonship of the NAC (which was specially created for her, there being no provision for it in the Constitution) brought to her. She earned free publicity at the expense of Central and state (Congress-run) governments, which carried her picture in all official advertisements, giving her greater prominence than to the Prime Minister. She got to fly in the Defence Minister’s aircraft on politically beneficial visits to Kashmir (after the earthquake) and the Andamans (after the tsunami). On paper, she was only accompanying the Defence Minister, who alone can requisition IAF aircraft. In reality, Pranab Mukherjee was her subordinate fellow-traveller. At all the places that Soniaji visited, TV cameras showed him standing dutifully behind her.

NAC chairpersonship brought other political benefits too, which none of the other MPs holding other ‘offices of profit’ can even dream of. It’s one of the worst-kept secrets in the capital that the National Security Advisor, who has brought all the intelligence agencies under his tight command, used to regularly brief Sonia Gandhi. In fact, political intelligence gathered by the IB would go first to her, and only cursorily, if at all, to the Prime Minister. Political and bureaucratic appointments were decided almost exclusively by 10 Janpath.

Her extra-constitutional conduct was rationalised on the ground that she held a governmental office. Curiously, with all the power she enjoyed as the ‘‘super’’ Prime Minister, she never had to answer a single question about the NAC in Parliament. What unique immunity from parliamentary accountability! And yet, her sycophants hailed her as a ‘‘tyag murti’’ when she declined premiership and accepted a more powerful perch in the NAC.

... contd.