The liability factor

If even the threat of a challenge from Jitendra Prasada drives Sonia Gandhi into a tizzy, does she have what it takes to be measured against Vajpayee?

Like thousands of Indians I tuned into Zee TV at half past eight this past Monday evening to watch its challenge to Kaun Banega Crorepati. And, again like thousands of Indians, I was frantically praying for the original to come on minutes later. Let us face it, there is really nothing like the original — and the ‘Big B’ is streets ahead of the competition.

What is true of the small screen is equally so for the political stage. The image of a ministry, or of a party, depends greatly on the impression given by its chief executive, its most visible face. And pretend as they might the troupe of ‘Sonia and the Umpteen Dwarfs’ do not quite evoke the respect and affection that Atal Bihari Vajpayee commands so naturally.

Even some Congressmen have reluctantly come to the same conclusion. Of course, they did not have much of a choice — the results of the last Lok Sabha polls made it abundantly clear that Sonia Gandhi was not the saviour some dreamers had made her out to be.

Do you remember the scenes of wild abandon that greeted the Italian-born Gandhi bahu’s entry into Indian politics? I recall how some Congressmen threw all dignity to the winds, literally rolling in the dirt outside 10 Janpath’s steel gates in that cold winter of 1997. I also recollect how Sonia Gandhi took over the reins of the Congress in 1998, marching into the party headquarters as Sitaram Kesri sulked in his own house. (In the terminology of the markets, it was an adversarial take-over of an indigenous business house by a multinational.)

I have never quite understood why Sonia Gandhi’s assumption of the presidency aroused such hopes. She was, lest we forget, the chief campaigner in the 1998 general elections, and the results were as poor as in Narasimha Rao’s day. Be that as it may, poor old Kesri was out in the cold. It has been all downhill since then for his successor.

Shall we ever forget that unforgettable press conference which Sonia Gandhi held in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhawan? Jayalalitha had just announced withdrawal of support from the Vajpayee ministry, and the Congress (I) boss had gone to discuss possibilities with the President. Someone from the assembled media corps asked whether the numbers added up for a Sonia Gandhi ministry. And pat came the answer, “We are sure of 272!”

To use a metaphor that Signor Maino’s daughter should appreciate, the Congress (I) president had just crossed the Rubicon. A ‘chief campaigner’ may be permitted to falter, but the head of the Congress parliamentary party has fewer excuses. When it turned out that she was a good forty short of the promised 272, polls became inevitable. And Sonia Gandhi found that it was impossible to shake off the image of a schemer who had pulled down Atal Bihari Vajpayee — and then found it impossible to provide an alternative despite all her tall talk.

That blunder was compounded by others. Having vowed to go it alone at Pachmarhi — remember it? — the Congress then desperately sought allies. Having found them, it vowed to form a government on its own. Having alienated its new-found friends, it tried to repair fences... The result, as we all know, was the poorest set of election results ever returned by the Congress.

A nasty quip making the round sums it up: after praying for the prime minister’s health, it goes, the Bharatiya Janata Party then appeals even more fervently that the gods preserve Sonia Gandhi. It is only half a joke — the Congress (I) still has many resources and in different hands it would prove a formidable Opposition. But will it ever get the leadership it deserves?

The problem with Sonia Gandhi is not that she is an Italian. (Not that it helps of course!) The core of the Congress (I)’s dilemma is that she is so spectacularly ill-equipped to be a politician. She cannot handle people, she knows nothing of ground realities, she cannot even speak without reading from a piece of paper. Displaying the traditional insecurity of the incompetent, she can barely tolerate a Digvijay Singh or an S. M. Krishna, the best Congress chief ministers today. She does not even make an effort to read up on issues — leading up to an embarrassing incident when she tied herself up in knots on India’s nuclear policy in a conversation with President Clinton.

Let us be honest: were it not for the accident of marriage to Rajiv Gandhi, what qualifies Sonia Gandhi to aim at prime ministership? The tragedy of the Congress (I), however, is that the chance of her being booted out are remote. Am I saying that Jitendra Prasada — or whoever — has no chance of unseating her?

Well, if nothing else, the chances of the organisational polls being free and fair range from poor to nonexistent. Congressmen themselves admit, albeit off the record, that up to 50 per cent of the membership rolls in the past were simply bogus. There is nothing to show that matters have improved today. As far as I know, the voters’ list of delegates to the All-India Congress Committee is not ready. The scope for rigging is immense under these circumstances; if there is no voters’ list, who is to say that person ‘X’ or ‘Y’ is not entitled to cast his or her ballot?

It is a measure of Sonia Gandhi’s nervousness that her camp is still trying to have her elected unopposed. Why? Quite frankly, Jitendra Prasada’s challenge is not as potent as some would make it out. No matter what his clout in the Uttar Pradesh unit, he has never really had a chance to spread his wings outside his home state. Prasada has never even served in any ministerial post, whether in Lucknow or Delhi, and the highest he rose in the party hierarchy was to be general-secretary.

Yet, if even the threat of a challenge from Jitendra Prasada drives Sonia Gandhi into a tizzy, does she have what it takes to be measured against Atal Bihari Vajpayee? It takes more than the tag of ‘actor’ or ‘actress’ to take on an Amitabh Bachchan; it takes more than a famous surname to become prime minister of India. But as long as Congressmen don’t understand that, we shall all know the answer to Kaun Banega Congress-pati!

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