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M. A. Venkat

THE first phase of elections is over, and the results have not been flattering to the Congress(I).

Suddenly it is face-to-face with myriad questions, one of which is: Can the party president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, become the country's prime minister?

Try an element this issue might be connected with: Liberty, constitutionality, symbolism, accommodationist affinity, secularity, electoral expediency, and so forth.

Then there are of course other arguments that thrive on the punctiliousness about Indianness, although many — apparently, including those from its protagonists and its provokers — have so far failed to give a convincing answer to what Indianness is or is not, and how it does or does not matter.

The biggest problem today, to Ms Sonia Gandhi's acceptance, stems not from her birth status. It does rather from the fact that not many think that the Gandhi family's marital bequest to her identity was only the first step to her becoming a "Gandhi".

Many think that her marriage, decades ago, into the Gandhi family is her only ticket to the country's top job.

Despite its contributions to the country, the Congress party's mostly hereditarily drawn governance did not help Ms Sonia Gandhi much.

Contrarily, the party's idolised leadership has, in fact, exacerbated her foreign upbringing — particularly by insisting on Ms Sonia Gandhi an iconic grasp of and enticing insight into India.

India, whereas, looms as an incredibly knotty landscape capable of outwitting even its most consummate political players.

Congress members would likely not agree, but not many Indians seem to believe that Ms Sonia Gandhi's role in recent years as the Opposition leader has dramatically altered the situation and groomed her for the country's top executive post.

Some might argue that her current efforts at the party was preceded by certain strides — leading, for example, with her choice in 1991 to hold on to India, despite her husband falling to assassins.

In all, what Ms Sonia Gandhi brings to the table might apotheosize a wife's devotion for her husband. More broadly, however, she might also qualify as an exemplary denizen.

And she could as well be exalted for whatever contribution she may have since made to her party — but the Indian people blush the nation's top job should be decided by these exultations.

So how does this size-up with those who have chosen to ride the wave of Ms Sonia Gandhi's origin?

One would be tempted to think that the "foreign-origins" issue, coming especially just ahead of the elections in 2004, might serve the main rival of the Congress, the BJP, pretty well.

Life would have had it simpler if politics were always a zero-sum game. Alas, the BJP that has reminded about Ms Sonia Gandhi's acceptability seems however to have also stumbled.

Many, including those within the BJP, who question her acceptability, do not yet know — and worse still, may perhaps not know till the polls are well over — who the BJP's prime-ministerial candidate is?

The incumbent appears rather spent for another term. Mr L. K. Advani is perceived to be too hard-line to lead, and others within the BJP cannot even be thought of for the job.

This means that in 2004 the world's largest democracy would primarily be choosing between one party, whose prime ministerial face raises issues of acceptability, and another, whose prime minister is all together unknown.

Put differently, the coming elections would be an exercise in non-identity. If Ms Sonia Gandhi has to face an unidentified opponent, her own foreign origin would not be the question.

(The author is political scientist.)

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