Sonia Gandhi, 73, was today declared Interim President of the Congress. Again. After a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), senior leaders and the Gandhi family kicked the contentious leadership can down the road for another six months.
The proceedings followed a neat script choreographed to perfection by Ahmed Patel, the party treasurer. Except that the returns of the Gandhi family movie now have a diminishing box office return.
In 2004, Sonia Gandhi listened to her "inner voice" and refused to take over as Prime Minister after leading the UPA to victory. One of those who publicly sobbed at her refusal, Kapil Sibal, was a signatory to the controversial letter that sought change and triggered today's lengthy meeting. Sibal today even tweet-attacked Rahul Gandhi without verification about a comment allegedly made by Gandhi dubbing the dissenters "BJP agents".
Till the early hours of this morning, Ahmed Patel and KC Venugopal, under his direction, worked the phone lines to ensure a smooth CWC meeting without differences being aired. Patel is learnt to have made an emotional plea to senior leaders to "not upset Mrs Gandhi in her uncertain health". This followed a social media rollout of support for the Gandhi family by all Congress Chief Ministers including Amarinder Singh of Punjab, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh and Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan.
Patel also ensured that former PM Manmohan Singh made an appeal for Sonia to remain chief or be replaced by Rahul Gandhi. AK Antony chipped in, saying that the dissent letter was "cruel".
The letter bomb was defused with Sonia Gandhi magnanimously forgiving the dissenters (File)
The Patel script was tight. Obligatory appeal for Sonia Gandhi to continue or else Rahul Gandhi - the party stood ready to serve them both.
"Koi dispute nahin hain. Hum sab saath hain" (There is no dispute, we stand united) is the message that the CWC was primed to send. So no mention of the loss of the Madhya Pradesh government, the brain drain of Jyotiraditya Scindia defecting to the BJP and the very recent near-exit of Sachin Pilot. The lack of any coherence and content in the party's battle against the BJP was not an issue. Neither was the total lack of communication between the family-run "High Command" and the party.
A senior leader who had signed the note of dissent told me: "(Rahul) Gandhi attacked us; so did his sister, Priyanka Gandhi. They tried to make an emotional pitch about Mrs Gandhi being attacked while she was in hospital and we were battling to save our government in Rajasthan. I respect Sonia Gandhi, and I share her concern about the party which is crumbling. I want Mrs Gandhi to focus on her health and let someone else worry full-time about the party. It cannot be a Rahul re-run. Why did a band of loyalists attack us? Like Ambika Soni wanting disciplinary action or Kumari Selja calling us 'BJP agents' which prompted Ghulam Nabi Azad's offer to resign. Did the family say a word to Selja?"
The dissenters who hoped for change are now clear that the Gandhis will not cede control (File)
The letter bomb was defused with Sonia Gandhi magnanimously forgiving the dissenters and allowing herself to be persuaded to continue. "I have no ill-will or any negativity towards those who wrote the letter. It is their right. What is wrong and what hurt me was that the letter was leaked to the media," she said.
Nothing in politics is ever what it seems. The dissenters who include Shashi Tharoor, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal and Anand Sharma had in their letter demanded a "full-time visible leadership" and complained about a drift in the party. They had pointed to an "uncertainty in leadership" and said that the Gandhis will always be "an integral part of a collective leadership".
The deep-rooted problems of the Congress won't go away, whatever the party is currently pretending. Today's CWC sidestepped the problem of Rahul Gandhi returning, a prospect that fills most of the party with unease. Gandhi is continuing to call the shots with his mother as the party arbiter. At today's session, RG bashed the media saying it is "BJP-controlled and whatever (leak) goes to them benefits the BJP".
The dissenters who hoped for change are now clear that the Gandhis will not cede control. They also feel that they are now on a "list" and will pay a political price for speaking out. "The only thing that changed today was that the obligatory AICC samosa was not served at the online meet. If I had fallen asleep, it would have been any CWC where we swore fealty to the Gandhi family," said an attendee.
(Swati Chaturvedi is an author and a journalist who has worked with The Indian Express, The Statesman and The Hindustan Times.)
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of NDTV and NDTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.