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Prime Minister Sonia?

In 1997, the then I K Gujral government allocated a government bungalow in Delhi's prestigious Lodhi Estate to a young married couple. It was a significant wedding gift, with a market value in excess of Rs 100 million. It was also the first time in the history of Independent India that a newly married couple had been given such a subsidy by a country that has more desperately poor people within it than any other.

However, obviously kind-hearted as he is, the then prime minister decided that a capital cost of Rs 100 million and annual costs of Rs 4 million plus on security and other expenses was not excessive, especially as the taxpayer and not the himself would have to foot the burden.

Sadly, the wedding gift did not save poor Gujral from being bundled out of office by the very mother of the charming bride. Perhaps the official reason for the gift was responsible for the lady's anger. It was expressly stated that the new residence was essential for 'security reasons'. Logically, this would mean that the bride and groom would have been unsafe in the sprawling government-provided bungalow occupied by her mother, the mother's two divorced sisters, and her son on his visits to India. What a slur to cast on anyone, that her own daughter is not safe if she shares the same roof as her mother! No wonder that Gujral was bundled out by Sonia Gandhi, the distinguished occupant of 10 Janpath.

Sonia Gandhi has given no indication that she is below the poverty line. Indeed, the income-tax records of her parents, sisters and their former husbands would indicate the financial progress of this delightful family, especially during the 1980s. However, for some odd reason neither our globetrotting journalists nor any government (including the present one) has as yet revealed ANY of the details about the most powerful family in -- sorry, in and out of -- India.

No one has asked whether Rahul has been these past nine years, and what he is doing now. No one is going into the progress in the business of the son-in-law ever since he married into the family that owns India. And if there have been news reports about the periodicity of the family's foreign visits, and their cost to the taxpayer in one form or the other, these have appeared in publications yet to be launched. Such a lack of interest in the likely candidate for India's next prime minister indicates that it was not just during the Emergency that the press crawled before the official Gandhis.

For there happens to be another daughter-in-law as well, one who stays in her own house and who writes about dogs and cats. The difference in what the State spends on the one and on the other is enormous, though that can be explained away by the fact that as a nation, India is yet to forget the fact that it was ruled by Europeans for 500 years. Had Sonia been from Africa or from China, definitely the elite in Mumbai, Delhi and other cities would not have crawled for an invitation to some banquet where one can view the Empress of India from far away.

Way back in the Narasimha Rao years, Digvijay Singh, N D Tiwari and others would not have waited in the sun at Lucknow airport for hours to catch a glance from Sonia (and a smile from Priyanka) as they boarded a helicopter for Amethi. In the old days, domestic servants used to wait at the gates for the Master and Mistress to come. Nothing has changed.

Lest all this be construed as an attack on Sonia, let it be clear that the lady was a loving wife and is a devoted mother. Rajiv Gandhi was lucky to have won her heart, and she took good care of him. She has also been a supportive parent, especially to her son. In private, Sonia Gandhi is a shy and attractive individual, sincere both in her likes and her aversions. However, she should never have succumbed to the pressure of retainers and entered politics. By doing so, she has taken up a task that is both distant and distasteful to her. She has opened herself up to scrutiny and criticism, which cannot long be postponed.

There is a proverb: be careful of what you wish, you may get it. Should Sonia Gandhi get the position that she has been aiming at, the chair once occupied by her husband and two others from his family, her first few forays in Parliament will show the extent of her mistake. While journalists may exhibit a masochistic delight in being ignored, the likes of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and George Fernandes are unlikely to be so forgiving. Instead of one decision every week, there will be twenty or more in a day, many of which will attract the same flak that Sonia's help to Rabri Devi did.

Sonia will be able to engineer the fall of the Vajpayee government this year: Monu Nalapat, continued