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Emotional supporters have implored Sonia Gandhi to become
India's prime minister to no avail.
Meanwhile, leaders of her Congress party have resigned to
protest her surprise decision to turn down the post.
Among those who resigned was former finance minister Manmohan
Singh who is being considered for the post of Prime Minister
if Sonia Gandhi insists on not taking up the position.
For more on this, Bharati Jagdish (BJ) spoke to B. G. Verghese
(BGV) who's with the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi
and was formerly Information Adviser to the late Mrs Indira
Gandhi.
BGV: "Things are moving forward. I think she has always
been a sort of reluctant Prime Minister-in-waiting as people
seem to imagine that she was and she has said this many times.
When her mother-in-law was assassinated and her husband Rajiv
was asked to take over the office of Prime Minister, she tried
to persuade him not to do so. She said she knew, particularly
after his death, what a tremendous burden it places on the
individual and the family in those particular circumstances
where you're the target of many quarters. So I think she has
never had the ambition to be Prime Minister, but she has always
had the ambition to try and push forward what she says has
been the mission of the family into which she has married
- strengthen India, make it grow, make it a secular, democratic
and liberal state. Whether she is Prime Minister or merely
leader of the Congress Party, that objective will remain."
BJ: Now, the issue of her foreign origin was said to be a
major factor in her decision. The Hindu nationalists in parliament
would have definitely given her a hard time if she had just
taken up the post and she realised this. What's your perspective
on this?
BGV: "I really don't think so. I think this issue was
settled long ago. According to the Indian constitution, any
citizen has the right to hold any office including the highest
in the land and the equality of all citizens is a fundamental
right. If the BJP and other critics has wanted to, they could
have made an effort to amend the constitution when they were
in office, but they could not. Her Italian origin would have
had some kind of nuisance value, but it would have diminished
her critics rather than Mrs Sonia Gandhi. I don't think that
Mrs Gandhi's decision in the last couple of days has been
based on the fact that there is opposition. But by doing this,
she has emerged with much higher moral stature and on the
question of Indian-ness her actions follow an Indian tradition
of renunciation which has dotted our history and I think at
the end of the day, this leaves her as the tallest Indian
of us all, including above her predecessor or anyone else."
BJ: So do you think that the fact that she bowed out would
actually enhance her authority over the Congress Party?
BGV: "Absolutely, not only in the Congress Party, but
among her allies and in the country at-large."
BJ: What about the voters? Did they vote for the Congress-plus
coalition because they expected Sonia Gandhi to become Prime
Minister ultimately through a Congress-plus win? Essentially,
were they voting for the personality rather than the party
and won't they now be disappointed that Mrs Gandhi has declined
to be Prime Minister?
BGV: "Well, they certainly voted for the Congress Party
and its allies and for the values and the programmes it put
forward. It was not a contest - as the BJP tried to make it
seem - between two individuals. They kept on taunting her
by saying that "Vajpayee is our Prime Minister, who's
your Prime Minister?". She always said that that's not
the important thing and said that she was leading the Congress
Party and if the party with its allies end up in the majority,
they would all meet together and unanimously decide on who
is to be their leader."
BJ: Mr Manmohan Singh, India's former Finance Minister, is
reportedly going to be recommended for the post of Prime Minister.
He is widely-known as the man who wrenched India out of its
worst financial crisis in modern history. Is there more confidence
in Mr Manmohan's leadership?
BGV: "Certainly, there is confidence in his leadership.
His economic vision and wisdom will be available to the government,
but the fact that he has got the political support of Mrs
Gandhi will enable him to do what he otherwise would not be
able to do. Mr Manmohan Singh is not a political figure. He
is an ex-bureaucrat and a technocrat and an academic. He is
a very fine person, of great integrity and held in the highest
esteem in his own party and across the board, but he is not
a political figure. He was able to do what he did last time
as Finance Minister because he had the strong hand and backing
of the previous Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. This time, he'll
have the strong hand of Mrs Sonia Gandhi."
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