True leadership

Nothing she had accomplished so far -- not even the considerable triumph of orchestrating the Congress party's upset victory in the elections -- has shown to me that Sonia Gandhi deserves to be India's PM more than her willingness to step aside in the interests of national unity.

This is true leadership. True leadership consists in putting the interests of your country before your own.

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Many have hailed Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the great Indian leader of these times, and say that he has responded to his dethroning with restraint and dignity. I am not so sure. In the first place, I do not think that true leadership consists of marginalising minority communities and amassing power by sowing seeds of division and rancour.

Nor do I give him much credit for stepping down without complaint and not contesting the election. Come on. Let us not use our own leaders as yardsticks of acceptable conduct. Stepping down when you have lost an election should not be praiseworthy, it should be expected.

In addition, while it is true that he has not made an issue of Sonia's foreign birth in the days following the Congress victory, it is also true that he has done so many times in the past.

More importantly, he did nothing to restrain the ugly campaign against Sonia that the BJP and its allies kicked off immediately after the election results, and notably did not reign in other senior BJP leaders, such as Uma Bharti and Sushma Swaraj, who have said that they would never accept Sonia as PM.

But Sonia has shown true leadership. All those who have said that she does not deserve to be India's PM should be ashamed of themselves. Her actions have shown her to be a true Indian patriot who puts her country first.

Even though, as leader of the Congress and the party's consensus choice for the post, she had every right to be PM, she stepped aside for a less controversial figure in ex-Finance Minister Manmohan Singh.

She took this selfless step because she knew that to do otherwise would be to continue to polarise the country and to deepen the divisions that threaten the country's stability.

True leadership consists of trying to reach out across the aisle and to extend the olive branch of amity to your opponents. It consists of acting with generosity and magnanimity to put the good of the country and unity ahead of your own personal ambitions.

Sonia's decision to step aside was also politically very astute. The BJP and its allies had made it clear that they would use her foreign origin to create controversy and fire up their base. The issue would have dogged her throughout her prime ministership, and been used to undermine and second-guess every decision that she took. Now, it is the Congress' base that is fired up. By stepping aside, she has defused the entire issue, and turned a potential liability into a plus.

The BJP, not too put too fine a point on it, has disgraced itself once again. By taking the high road, Sonia has made them look small and petty. The intemperate response of the BJP to the possibility of Sonia as PM has exposed its worst face to the public.

Manmohan Singh is also an exceptionally good choice for the top spot. In addition to the fact that he is highly capable and well-regarded by all, the announcement of his premiership also served to calm the jitters in India's financial markets that had been occasioned by the Congress victory. The fact that he is a member of the minority Sikh community is also a salutary slap against the BJP's Hindutva agenda.

Finally, by stepping aside, Sonia has kept a true trump card in reserve. Now, if anything goes wrong, the Congress will always have the power to install her as PM in a bid to fix things, whereas, had she been PM, and things went wrong, there would have been nowhere for the party to go without a loss of face.

If only the political leadership here in Bangladesh could show similar leadership and judgment. Can anyone imagine either the PM or the leader of the opposition stepping down for any reason? And no, passing the baton of leadership to another member of one's family does not count. I wouldn't be impressed with Sonia if she had stepped aside in favour of Rahul.

Sadly, in this country we have the politics of no compromise and winner takes all. The idea that an elected government has any responsibility whatsoever to the interests of those who oppose it is utterly alien to our political landscape. Who ever heard of such a thing?

In recent times what olive branches have either of our esteemed leaders ever extended to one another or to each other's supporters? It is hard enough to get either of them to be responsive to their own supporters let alone those of the other party.

Look at the 14th amendment to the constitution that was recently passed in parliament. This was an amendment that was, in pertinent part, opposed by civil society, the media, and the general public. But this did not stop the government from passing it in the teeth of popular opinion. This is the constitution we are talking about -- the founding document of our country.

Who amends the constitution against the will of so many people? What can one say about an administration that acts in opposition to the wishes of so many of its supporters, to say nothing of those who did not vote for it?

The amending of the constitution under these conditions was not only wrong, it was also politically tone-deaf. Like I said at the start of this piece, sometimes the right thing to do is also the smart thing to do.

I wonder whether Sonia's example will persuade our leaders into being more generous with one another, and lead them to conclude that true leadership consists of trying to bring the country together instead of tearing it apart.

Somehow, I doubt it.

Zafar Sobhan is an Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.