The Hindu Business Line : Sonia does it again!

With her dramatic resignation from the membership of the Lok Sabha and as Chairperson of the National Advisory Council (NAC), Ms Sonia Gandhi has once again demonstrated that she is adept at turning the tables on her critics and opponents. This is the second time, after her renunciation of the highest political office on May 18, 2004, she has shown her ability to recapture the quintessence of Indian cultural traditions.

At the receiving end of a political masterstroke, the BJP has called it as "an act to save her face" or as a fallout of her becoming "a victim of her own conspiracy". No doubt, Ms Sonia Gandhi, by her decision, has erased the impression that she was manipulating the Congress party and the Government, first to adjourn Parliament sine die, and then to prorogue it, to facilitate the promulgation of an Ordinance to help her retain both membership of Parliament and her position as Chairperson of the NAC. But at the same time, she has made her own Party and the Government lose face. If the reports doing the rounds are true, she was against the idea of the Ordinance from the beginning. And if it was known that Ms Sonia Gandhi intended pulling the rug from under the feet of her detractors, the Government and the Congress party could have played the cards differently.

By springing a surprise with her resignation while Parliament was still in session, the party, the Government and herself could have quietly watched with amusement the 40 or so MPs (and those similarly placed in State legislature) of different parties facing charges of holding offices of profit begging the government to bring legislation to save them. The legislation, whether as a Bill or an Ordinance, would have then looked like the outcome of the Government graciously obliging the legislators and their parties.

What next? Will the MPs said to be holding offices of profit trump Ms Sonia Gandhi by following suit?

B.S. Raghavan