The Sonia factor

Even a self-effacing person like Lal Bahadur Shastri did not hide his desire to be the Prime Minister. When Jawaharlal Nehru suffered from a stroke at Bhubaneswar, I told Shastri -- I was his press officer then -- how people believed that he was such a staunch Nehruite that he would himself propose the name of Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, whenever the occasion arose. "I am not that much of a sadhu as you imagine me to be," was his reply. The honour, he said, was that of being Bharat ka pradhan mantri (India's prime minister). None would say no.

Sonia Gandhi made herself clear a few years ago when she was given to understand that Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party would support her to reach the magic figure of 272 in the 543-member Lok Sabha. She did not make it because she was unwilling to share power with Mulayam. I do not know why the Congress announced Sonia Gandhi's candidature for prime ministership from the Shimla conclave itself. What was the hurry when the elections were still 15 months away? There was no challenge to her within the party, nor was there any opposition building against her. She has galvanised the Congress and she deserves the highest position the party can win.

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Yet long before the elections, the Congress has unwittingly created a poll issue. The BJP has re-ignited the embers of controversy which lay cold. From Pramod Mahajan to Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, the important functionaries of the BJP have made it clear that the party will make Sonia Gandhi's Italian origin an issue at the polls.

"When people elect the prime minister, many issues linked to the country's security and interests will crop up," says Naqvi. The Telugu Desam Party has demanded an amendment to the constitution to ensure that only Indian-born are eligible for the post of prime ministership. This is just the beginning. It may well become the central issue at the next polls. I am sure that Sonia Gandhi and her party strategists must have weighed the pros and cons. Mere bravado does not bring votes. True, the party has done well at the polls. During Sonia Gandhi's presidentship, the party has taken the tally of successes from five to 15 states. But these elections were confined to the states. The issue of her nationality did not bother the voters. They were choosing the chief minister.

The Lok Sabha election is a different proposition. People will vote from the national point of view. They will be conscious that they are electing the prime minister. It is difficult to guess how they would react when the opponents go hammer and tongs at Sonia Gandhi's Italian origin. Nationalism and patriotism are emotive slogans. The real issues -- governance and development -- might be pushed into the background. The Congress would be on the defensive all the time.

Early naming of a person for prime ministership has not been productive in the past. The Janata Party was routed in 1980 when it projected Jagjivan Ram for the office of prime ministership. Sonia Gandhi is from the Nehru dynasty. But this fact can cut both ways.

Was the announcement really necessary? The Congress was under no pressure to do so. What the announcement has done is to convert the contest from the party to person. It would have been between the Congress and the BJP but it would now be between Italian-born Sonia Gandhi and Indian-born Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The Congress has made another mistake. It has declared that Sonia Gandhi would lead the coalition if and when formed. That the party will have no truck with communal parties needs no clarification. But the announcement that the Congress will not accept anyone except Sonia Gandhi closes several doors. A coalition is a consensus of sorts. No party can foreclose the options which will come up after the polls. The Congress may have to put together different patches to block the undesirable.

At present, neither Mulayam Singh nor Laloo Prasad Yadav is a problem. But either of the two can become a problem if he wins some 40 seats. Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) seems to have withdrawn his objection to Sonia Gandhi's nationality, the point on which he left the Congress. But the NCP has said after their meeting that projecting Sonia Gandhi will be a "historical blunder." The primary consideration is to stall communal elements, not to install Sonia Gandhi. But he has rightly criticised the party for naming her as the leader of the future coalition. To the discomfort of the BJP, the Muslim voter is tilting towards the Congress. This is mainly due to the mess the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) have made. The Sankaracharya appears to be in favour of a constitutional guarantee for the protection of mosques at Varanasi and Mathura in exchange of the Babri masjid site. This formula can sell provided the Sangh parivar accepts it. Some leaders in the BJP are in favour of the formation. But they are afraid to join issue with the RSS or its rowdiest wing, the VHP.

But Sonia Gandhi faces a piquant situation within her own party. Many in the Congress believe that a soft saffronisation is required to attract Hindus, particularly women from the community. A few Congress chief ministers have taken a position which has made the party a pale carbon copy of the BJP. The BJP has become saffronised Congress and the Congress secular BJP, as somebody puts it.

Winning elections is important but should it be done at the expense of what the Congress has stood for? In fact, pluralism, if secularism is an overused term, is the ethos of the country, the principle on which independence was won. The party seems to be vacillating at a time when it needs to be determined. The Congress would have lost Gujarat anyway because the poison of communalism has penetrated too deep. But if the party had made a frontal attack on the Hindutva forces, it would have at least silenced those who say the Congress does not want to annoy the Hidutva elements. Fundamentalism of any hue -- Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian -- has to be fought relentlessly. The Congress should not look compromising on this point.

One thing that I have not been able to understand is why a five-star hotel at Shimla was chosen as the venue of the Congress conclave. This was hardly the place from where the slogan Congress ka hath, garib ke sath (the Congress hand -- the party's symbol -- is with the poor) should have been raised. It sounded hollow in those luxurious surroundings. Why didn't the party managers think of Sevagram at Wardha? Mahatma Gandhi's cottage in the backdrop of the conclave would have been more convincing. The 118-year-old Congress would have looked like going to the roots. It seems lost at present.

Kuldip Nayar is an eminent Indian columnist.