Profit law allows her but Sonia not likely to return to NAC job

Speaking to journalists today, Gandhi said, “I am still undecided”. But sources close to her said that what is bothering her “is the principle of it”. The amended law, recently given Presidential assent, exempts the NAC chairmanship as Office of Profit. However, sources said that Sonia’s reading is that if the NAC chairmanship was “viewed as an office of profit then, in principle, it remains an office of profit now.”

In any case, the law’s validity has been challenged in the Supreme Court by Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi and the court has given notice to the government. Having resigned her Lok Sabha seat and having recontested and won the election from Rae Bareilly in May, Sonia is unlikely to do anything that may embroil her in another controversy, certainly not till the matter is settled in court. The legal process may take months to complete. Besides, a committee of Parliament is now looking at the wider issue of defining what constitutes an office of profit, in deference to President APJ Kalam’s reservations on the bill. That process will also take a few months to complete.

While there are sections in the Government which would like the body to be wound up, the NAC has played a key role in an array of legislation, including the Right to Information Act, the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, or the law against domestic violence. It is Sonia who insisted that the Government should not bring the amendment to exclude certain file notings from the ambit of the Right to Information Act.

If Sonia ceases to be the chairperson of the NAC, the body will no longer enjoy the kind of clout it has because of the position she enjoys in the UPA without being in power. There are suggestions now that the body be converted into a social advisory council headed by the Prime Minister. But this does not seem likely. There is another possibility that the NAC be headed by an eminent personality who has the confidence of Sonia Gandhi. This too is easier said than done.