The writer is a journalist with Scroll.in in Delhi. He is a Multani from Lucknow, who finds himself trapped in the Republic of South Delhi. He tweets @DilliDurAst
Sometimes you even wonder why God is not being kind to you. But when it comes to Sonia Gandhi, we don’t say anything. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA)’s second term became an irredeemable political mess and we have blamed Manmohan Singh, his ministers, and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. The Queen Mother is not only above all criticism, she is above all questioning, all political analyses.
Neither the Bharatiya Janata Party nor the Aam Aadmi Party have put up a strong candidate against Madam in her constituency, Rae Bareily, in Uttar Pradesh. Both of them have put up a strong candidate against Rahul and the Aam Aadmi Party’s chief Arvind Kejriwal is taking on Narendra Modi himself in Varanasi.
That tells us something about what Sonia Gandhi is in Indian politics, even when her party, under her leadership, is at its lowest ebb in over 10 years. But this may not last long. Even before the general elections began, a senior Congress leader in Kerala slammed Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. The Congress is going through an adverse phase now, he said in a statement that only someone eager to lose an election would issue. He said the biggest blunder was that Dr Singh did not interact with the media and this led to a communication gap between the government and the people. The hidden meaning in Mr Chacko’s statement is that he’s loyal to Sonia Gandhi and is building the narrative to Congress will come up with after the elections results are declared on May 16.
So far, Sonia Gandhi has escaped criticism because of a simple division of labour, whereby she and her son took all credit and Dr Singh took all the blame. The sardar ji has been the punching bag. This division of labour has not been questioned enough because its suits Congressmen, because it is said to have worked in the UPA’s first term from 2004 to 2009, and most of all because we don’t know what transpires between Dr Singh and Mrs Gandhi. What is it that they negotiate between themselves and how? Is Dr Singh an equal partner or a rubber stamp?
We now have some semblance of what that relationship is like in a new book, The Accidental Prime Minister, by journalist Sanjaya Baru who was the Dr Singh’s media advisor from 2004 to 2008. Baru writes that Dr Singh was not only weak but also submissive. His ministers weren’t his men, they defied him on his face because they saw themselves as Sonia Gandhi’s men. She ran the government through a remote control. The only thing Dr Singh achieved as his own – the Indo-US civil nuclear energy deal – was by threatening resignation before Mrs Gandhi.
In UPA-2, Mrs Gandhi “defanged” Dr Singh completely, Baru writes in a book we all should be grateful to him for. Dr Singh promised to induct Baru in his office in his second term, but the party didn’t let him. That is the extent to which the party determined Dr Singh’s limits. And who runs the party? Mrs Gandhi.
That is why it is now important for the party — for Mrs Gandhi and her sycophants who blamed Dr Singh to appear more loyal to her — to answer hard questions about the failure of leadership. Who is responsible for all those scams, why did no heads roll, why weren’t these ministers ticked off for behaving arrogantly with the people of India?
Her ministers took the wrong call of putting Anna Hazare in jail and making him a martyr, they decided to respond with water canons when Delhites protested against rape, they claimed there was ‘zero loss’ in a huge telecom scam, thus showing to the opposition, media and the people that there would be no acknowledgment of errors. If Dr Singh was responsible for these political blunders then why was he not made to retire mid-way? And if it was the ministers, why didn’t some of those heads roll?
How long will the Congress party claim Mrs Gandhi is above answering such hard questions about UPA-2? Rahul Gandhi is a dimwit but what about the astute mother? The Congress can only benefit with some honesty. It is time.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2014.
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The Indian culture upholds the sanctity of women, at least in public offices, and that's the reason why no politician has taken her name or dragged Sonia's name in any scams so far.But after the elections, you wait and watch,her own party men will turn against her and use the choicest expletives.Sonia has never understood the culture or the politics in India,because she never felt the need for it until she was forced to with her husband's death.Time and again she tried to shy away from responsibilties,because she is an outsider and she knows how her own men revolted against her.Secondly, she is illiterate and doesn't posses any knowledge of any subject matter. Her speeches are tranlittered and she reads in a monotonous tone.This has made her insecure and she always needs the cooterie and some one to blame for, that's where Manmohan fit into. Thirdly, the Congress in India doesn't really have non-congress- charismatic persons.The reason for this is because, the party men have always hero-worshipped any one from the family and always felt only the "gandhi" name can win votes.This attitude of party men has brought the ruin of the party because no one questioned the decisions made, as long as there was her blessing.All that mattered who formed the cooterie. The head of the packs is Ahmed Patel,whi is again an illiterate became ,by default, her trusted leutnant.He forms the leader of the inner circle and protects the queen.Now imagine, such bullshitters surround her ,what do you expect? a golden rule or LUTE?
This article shows that while knowing the truth all along you were just trying to defend UPA in the name of secularism.
They say "Attack is the best form of Defense"; and so attacking leaders/parties, it is obvious that the author is trying to defend a bigger transgression on the Indian public. Maybe he should come clean himself.
@Sam: How many muslim leaders have apologized for when Hindus were burnt alive in the train by a muslim mob.
Not one of those Muslims was CM of Gujarat and neither sworn to preserve & protect the Constitution nor in-charge of Law & Order of the State. Excuses notwithstanding, Modi failed in maintaining L&O and therefore he owes an apology to people of Gujarat, families of all victims in particular..
@Anil: (Give Mr. Modi a fair chance instead of continually degrading him by branding him as “Hindu Nationalist”, overtly and covertly defaming him,)
Modi himself has no issues with it & how come you have? Modi openely & proudly calls himself "Hindu Nationalist" and that is an honest admission of his status. That way he is a straightforward man.
Excellent article. I still don't understand that why Modi should apologize for the incidents of 2002. Let us get facts straight here. How many muslim leaders have apologized for when Hindus were burnt alive in the train by a muslim mob. And how many Congress leaders have apologized for the burning of Sikhs in 1984.
I think it is these unfounded dumb qustions that Congress uses to confuse the real issues of high unemployment, failing infrastructure and poor ratings of India GDP etc.
Let us compare apples to apples. I can tell you that Modi is juicy mango because he knows that the 'hand' (the election symbol of Congress has hit the face of every Indian for the last 60 years with very little results.
very well written Shivam.
Queen of corruption is now above law and people. But unfortunately for those who do not have any shame in there entire life still vote for them
@ram indian hero? Please he will be remembered as weakest PM in history of india. For ten years indians were fooled and taken for a ride thinking our PM is MMS ruling the country. But it turns out he was remote control PM running on commands of Italian sonia which cost the country massive arab dollar worth in corruption past ten years while MMS remained silent and turned blind eye to it. He's anti-hero not hero
I would like BJP to win and NaMo to be the next PM, but I don't share the hatred and contempt most of the BJP supporters have for MMS.
Dr Singh is a very humble man, a patriot, a scholar and has done a lot for India. Financial liberalization was initiated by him in the 1990s. The problem is he is not a street smart regular politician and hence did not have, more importantly did not seek his own following. He is a bureaucrat who drifted into politics. India and the world is a better place because of such people.
Many Congress people and allies may have indulged in corruption. But not MMS. History will give due credit to him and he will be remembered as a great Indian hero.
Thanks for the writing Shivam.
Perhaps it would have helped the voters if you had written this a week ago.
Nonetheless an eye opener for us who assumed things about Mr. Singh. Looks like he is a victim of bullying himself from within the party.
Poor man with honest intentions took the blame for the corrupt congress party.
Congress party is like a cult. It should be kept out of power forever. Now that Indians have an alternative in AAP, perhaps it's about time to turning Congress into a small time party with no effective say in Indina policies.
It's disgusting to see the level of corruption, nepotism, bullying, dishonesty, lack of governance in congress party.