The decision of Sonia Gandhi, the architect of the surprise rout of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in India’s general elections, to give up command of the victorious forces and retire to the sidelines presents a classical example of what happens when victory is unexpected — the victors have no advance plan and don’t know where to take their victory.
What the electorate voted for was a government that would know its mind. What they have got instead is a leader who refuses to lead and a majority that seems destined to become the minority very soon. That is why, along with dismay, there is anger across India. The people see this as an abdication of responsibility and a breach of faith. Sonia had won their vote on the promise that she would lead the anti-NDA government they would vote into power. They have a right to feel aggrieved.
The reason given for her decision — the fear that her acceptance of the premiership would prove divisive because of her foreign origin, that she decided to protect Congress from damaging attacks — is only part of the truth. The BJP had made it an issue the moment there were signs that, bearing the magical Gandhi name, she would be able to bring the shine back to Congress. The NDA made it campaign issue. People heard the charge, weighted the evidence and threw the case out, and with it the BJP.
But the party seems determined not to give up the fight. Rejected decisively by the electorate, it has two options: Accept the verdict as a democratic party is expected to or take the law into its own hands as fascist outfits would. A section of the BJP — the Hindutva hardcore — seems to have opted for the second course.
The resignation threats of firebrands such as Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharati may have been more than decibel stunts; the chances are that they were signals to the saffron brigade to descend on the streets and take back with bullets, arson and mayhem what they lost in ballots. With the VHP in charge, there was a real danger that constant harping on Sonia’s foreign origin would over time have transmuted into the charge that a Christian is ruling the Hindu Rashtra — almost a guarantee for communal violence.
It is understandable if Sonia decided that such a scenario was too big a price to pay for the premiership. She was wrong. Surrendering to the forces of darkness does not bring peace. History has proved it. The only way to fight the beast is to confront it, and the earlier, the better. India, as she must know, is sick of accommodating itself to fanaticism. In confronting it, all secular parties need to unite behind a leader who has the confidence of the electorate.
They hoped that Sonia would be that leader. She has let them down.
