Sonia Succumbed....really???

Madan Mohan Shukla, till a few days back no one had heard of this politician from Kanpur. And now, suddenly he was on the center stage of Indian politics. When he set out to settle scores, with Samajwadi Party leader, Jaya Bachchan, he had no idea that his action was going to lead to a political imbroglio that would result in his own leader, Sonia Gandhi, resigning from the Lok Sabha.

After his candidature to the Rajya Sabha was cancelled, Madan Mohan Shukla petitioned the President to cancel Jaya's election as she held an office of profit by being a part of the UP Film Development Council. The President referred this application to the EC, which found Jaya guilty and cancelled her appointment.

It's always said that a wounded lion is a dangerous foe, and Samajwadi Party proved it to be true. It wasted no time in moving to the President seeking the disqualification of Sonia Gandhi, on the basis that she was holding an office of profit in her capacity as the Chairman of National Advisory Council. Several other MPs including LS speaker, Somnath Chatterjee were also accused.

Speculations were high when the Parliament was adjourned sine die on 22^nd March. The BJP sprang into action as soon as news broke out that the government was planning an ordinance between two sessions of Parliament, to help more than 40 MPs -- including Mrs. Gandhi and Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee. The BJP's shrill propaganda reached a climax when former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said if the government came out with such an ordinance, then 'the government will go'.

Without losing a moment, Leader of Opposition L K Advani and other BJP leaders revived fears of the June 1975 Allahabad high court judgment that was the catalyst that led to the imposition of Emergency. The BJP alleged that the government was planning an ordinance to change the law of disqualification, 1959, concerning parliamentarians in order to save Gandhi. Congress spokesman Rajiv Shukla on 22nd March denied the charge but no one believed him, so strong was the belief that the government was up to something.

Naturally, on the morning of March 23, the United Progressive Alliance government looked to be in a total mess. It faced a political fiasco after confidently believing hither-to that the National Advisory Council chairmanship held by Gandhi was not an office of profit.

The stupid thing about the whole episode is that the entire mess was of Congressmen's own making. None of the Congress' brigade of lawyers, H.R. Bharadwaj, Kapil Sibal, Rahul Anand etc. foresaw the consequences.

The result was that Sonia Gandhi had to resign from both the LS and NAC. However the question to be asked is did she lose anything by doing this? Her power and authority are not diminished because she has only resigned from the membership of Parliament (which she will contest again) and from an obscure outfit, the National Advisory Council. She could afford to resign because in the Congress ranks her resignation is immaterial. Resignation or no, her power within the party remains unchallenged, undiminished. She was and continues to be the chairperson of the all-powerful UPA, and that is all that matters.

2nd April 2006