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"This
is the first time in the history of Indian democracy that a
politician from Sikh (Sardaar) community has been offered the
post of Prime Minister."
S. Hassan
In
the last 72 hours Sonia Gandhi stunned the entire Indian
nation and the world by refusing the highest chair of the
largest democracy of the World, in the event, when it was a
matter of fulfilling the procedural formalities.
Sonia declined to take the role of Prime Minister stating the
reason that her inner voice was compelling her not to accept
the Premiership. Everything was going according to the script.
Two days ago Sonia Gandhi went to see the President Kalam
supposedly to inform him about her support for forming a
Congress-led new government in the Lok Sabah (lower house).
Sonia spent about 40 minutes with the President. When she came
out, everything changed. She, astoundingly, announced that she
would not be a candidate for the Prime Ministership and
Congress would be looking for another suitable candidate.
Despite the continuos extreme pressure from all the congress
leaders, party workers, winning congress parliamentarians,
party allies and the continuos agitation across the country in
her favour, she refused to change her mind and accept the
position of Prime Minister.
After losing the election, BJP front-liners started
threatening Sonia using all sorts of tactics including
boycotting the next Lok Sabah if Sonia (being a foreign
origin) is nominated for Prime Minister. Politics is a game of
chase. Sometimes your own move could throw you out from the
game. This is exactly how Sonia dealt BJP’s attack; she
slapped the face of BJP by the same tactic and refused to take
the Premiership.
Sonia’s decline even when she had been pressurised to accept
the PM role, from every corner with tremendous support at all
levels shows that BJP’s threats must not be the only reason
of compelling Sonia not accept the due role. The future will
definitely unfold those irresistible factors. However,
Sonia’s announcement not only swept the remaining hold of
BJP, if existed, in the country but damaged its reputation in
the outside world.
Behaving like a veteran politician by her actions, Sonia has
blown BJP as being a fanatic party in the pretext of BJP’s
threats, at the same time; she wanted to bury completely the
bitter past - when her mother-in-law and the former Prime
Minster Indra Gandhi was assassinated by her Sikh guard - by
recommending Dr. Manmohan Singh – a person from the Sikh
community.
This is the first time in the history of Indian democracy that
a politician from Sikh (Sardaar) community has been offered
the post of Prime Minister. After nominating Dr. Singh, Sonia
has also established her visionary abilities on dealing with
many issues at the same time. As a matter of fact there were
other senior Congressmen to pick from but by chosing Dr.
Manmohan Singh for the role of Prime Minister, Sonia also
elevated the secular image of the Congress and showed that
this is the only Congress Party which could select a
person from any faction.
Born in Rawalpindi Pakistan belonging to the city of Amratsar,
East Punjab; Dr. Manmohan Singh, undisputedly is the most
recognised person not only within Congress but in entire India
as being a father of the Indian economy. He had served as the
Governor of Reserve Bank of
India
in early 1980s before joining politics. He has served as the
most successful Finance Minister of
India
. Dr. Singh is acknowledged as a man of achievements as well
as Mr. Clean.
Sonia’s decision also reflects that she wants to be the
leader of the Janta (people) rather than a party. She followed
Mahatma Gandhi and other great leaders in choosing to be a
King-maker rather than a King.
In the last two days, Sonia has received an unbelievable
mandate from people of
India
. Only in a couple of days after the election, she is already
reaching the scale of popularity for which the outgoing Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spent ages.
One can understand that Sonia’s eyes are on the political
future of her children Rahul and Preyanka. And obliviously,
Ruhul and Preyanka‘s political career is associated with the
Congress Party. She understands that to bring back the
Congress status of mother of all parties in
India
, the destiny is still far. She has to strengthen the Congress
first to see the ultimate success of her children Rahul and
Preyanka.
(The
writer is a Sydney-based journalist and a political analyst.
He has concluded this analysis just after Sonia’s nomination
of Dr. Manmohan Singh).
Concluded:
Thursday, 20 May 2004 |
