M.J. Akbar, Editor-in-Chief, The Asian Age

An old friend of the Nehru-Gandhi family ... drew a one-line portrait of Sonia Gandh, "She is not a natural friend-maker." The unspoken ... implication was that while this may be a virtue for a recluse, it is less than wholesome in a person who seeks to prosper through a career in public life

I had a question ... how did he explain (Indira Gandhi's) success in politics? She had an instinctive feel for the right option, he responded. She had a tremendous array of information rivulets, he added; she always kept more than one stream available, and believed that truth had more than one dimension. But friend-maker? I insisted. As an admirer of Indira Gandhi, he could not quite get himself to admit a weakness. Instead he pounced on a strength: she knew how to build instant. Chemistry with anyone she met. In a few minutes a visitor would be jelly ... Even (her) public meetings have become frosty.

There' are understandable, if not entirely acceptable reasons. When Sonia Gandhi entered politics, her great strength was the fact that she was apolitical. Her great weakness now is that she is still apolitical. The party which welcomed the "cleanliness" of a clean slate, is in deep depression because the slate still remains clean. They now call it vacant. By this time - and president Sonia Gandhi is now a few serious elections old – Congressmen expected her to have learnt, at the minimum, the alphabet of Indian politics. No one thought she would pick up much grammar; but no one expected continued ignorance of the alphabet either ...

The weakness has become public with Sonia Gandhi's presence in Parliament. Her deputy in the Lok Sabha, Madhavrao Scindia, can compensate for her silence up to a point; but he cannot usurp her role without seeming rude or, worse, implicitly stressing her incompetence ...

A political party cannot be inspired by a speech-written leader; and its voters cannot be enthused by a leader whose eye contact is with the text rather than them ... When she meets the political class, ... she has nothing to contribute to the dialogue.

This helplessness becomes dangerous when mixed with ambition. Once, in those distant days of self-imposed exile, Sonia Gandhi was merely powerful. Today, power has been fueled with ambition. She wants to be Prime Minister of India, and will not let anything come in the way, least of all the Congress party ... She has brushed aside any suggestion of accountability after the pathetic performance of the Congress in the last Assembly elections ... She is beyond rebuke, above suspicion; she is both Caesar and Caesar's wife.

It is a fact of political life that the weaker you are the more possessive you become about power. You do not have the confidence to make space for another point of view. Indira Gandhi, who never veered away from democracy either before or after, became a dictator only at her weakest hour ... Sonia Gandhi has ... begun to confuse herself with the Congress. Sonia'is Congress and Congress is Sonia.

The nominations to the Rajya Sabha have been remarkable for their self-centered motivation. She did not treat the Congress a political party, as a collection of individuals and interests through whom she had to string a common denominator; she treated the Congress as an extension of her personal needs and demands. Anyone who did or could have challenged her was denied a ticket, and replaced by a non-entity whose only qualification was complete subservience to Sonia Gandhi ...

Paradoxically, Sonia Gandhi is only as strong as Congressmen are weak. She can be confident about their impotence. As they themselves cheerfully admit, cowardice is one of the elements that unites the party ...

There is possibly a case to be argued in favour of cowardice; perhaps there is nothing else which will work with as fractious a lot as Congressmen. But even cowardice needs a justification. Congressmen were happy to advertise their cowardice under the dominating leadership of Indira Gandhi, but there was a quid pro quo. Congressmen gave India Gandhi their loyalty; she in turn gave them victory in elections: Even when she lost an election, which she did ... once, she gave them hope. The equation between Indira Gandhi and here Congress worked because it was a two-way street.

Sonia Gandhi's tenure is unusual because she is demanding total obedience after she has sucked out all hope. No one believes that she can deliver any election victory ... The party contemplates the prospect of five years in opposition with Sonia Gandhi as its leader with, once again private, despair. There is no doubt about it; as long as she is leader, it will be five years in opposition no matter how abysmal the performance of the government.

Sonia Gandhi is a problem on two counts: she is incapable of mounting a serious political challenge to the BJP; and as long as her ambitions take precedence over party interests there cannot be any plausible unity among non- BJP parties ...

Sonia Gandhi possibly feels that she has time on her side ... Neither her age nor the age of her colleagues is the issue. The issue is what will the state of the Congress be in five years. The party has disappeared from most of India.

It would be a tragedy if the only Congress to survive after five years were the Overseas Congress. (Source: The Asian Age, 19 February, 2000)