Assault on India's Democracy by UPA

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Saturday, March 25, 2006

Sonia Gandhi has regained moral high ground in India: analysts

By Tripti Lahiri

‘She’s signaling that she is not interested in power and in Indian politics that makes her influence and capability actually go up’

Gandhi’s move distances her from her mother-in-law, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who in 1975 declared a state of emergency to hold on to power after a court found her guilty of electoral fraud

A decision by India’s ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi to quit her parliamentary seat to avoid a conflict of interest has seen her regain the moral high ground but her party remains tarnished, analysts said on Friday.

Gandhi resigned from parliament on Thursday after the opposition charged she had wrongfully held another salaried public post.

“She’s signaling that she is not interested in power and in Indian politics that makes her influence and capability actually go up,” said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan. “She is now sitting pretty.”

Gandhi cited her “inner conscience” when she stepped down in a move that echoed her decision not to become prime minister after leading the Congress party to an upset victory in the 2004 election.

“Following the principles of probity and my inner conscience I am resigning my post in the parliament,” Gandhi said Thursday, adding however she would run again for the seat in India’s elected lower house.

The 59-year-old Gandhi said she would also quit as chairwoman of the National Advisory Council (NAC), set up to implement her government’s electoral pledges. Right-wing opponents had charged that Italian-born Gandhi was breaking regulations by holding both posts and that the Congress adjourned parliament so it could push through a cabinet ordinance to save her.

Rangarajan said the unexpected resignation had put the opposition in a bind.

“They banked their strategy on her holding on,” said Rangarajan. “Now all that goes out of the window.”

India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) responded by pouring scorn on Gandhi’s gesture.

“She has become a victim of her own conspiracy and by resigning she is trying to save face,” said BJP spokesman Arun Jaitley. “This grandstanding will not pay any dividend.” But on Friday, cartoons in Indian newspapers depicted Gandhi wearing a halo and published letters from readers praising her.

“Gandhi deserves to be congratulated for the sense of propriety she has displayed,” said AP Govindakutty in a letter to The Hindu newspaper. According to Rangarajan, Gandhi’s move distances her from her mother-in-law, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, who in 1975 declared a state of emergency to hold on to power after a court found her guilty of electoral fraud.

But, analysts noted, the star of the Congress party, which had appeared to be trying to circumvent parliamentary rules to protect Gandhi, isn’t shining quite so brightly.

“Last time around when she did the right thing, the party came out a big winner,” said Balveer Arora, a professor of political science at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. “The government in power now was chosen by her.”

Political journalist Neerja Chowdhury lambasted the Congress party, while admitting that Gandhi had “made the best of a bad bargain.”

“The whole affair was badly handled by the Congress,” Chowdhury wrote in The Indian Express newspaper.

But with elected leaders from several parties in the same position as Gandhi, the larger political problem has not been solved, analysts said. AFP