Renouncer146;s mystique

Sonia8217;s gesture is more radical than even her fervid acolytes can comprehend

Sonia Gandhi8217;s resignation from Parliament and the NAC has set new standards in imaginative politics and leadership. Some leaders create enduring institutions, some respond well to crisis, while others still change the terms of discourse. But seldom in the annals of politics does someone display their leadership by converting potential farce into a moment of supreme opportunity. In one stroke Sonia Gandhi has managed to disarm any current or perhaps even future criticism of her motives. She has cut almost all the leaders that dot the landscape down in size. How many of them have even dared to resign on charges far more grievous than the ones at hand?

All of us, politicians and commentators, can croak in full measure: we can attribute her actions to public pressure, we can call her sacrifice an act of political cunning, but at this juncture our protestations will appear hollow. How many in public life can say the words, 8220;I am doing it because it is the right thing to do,8221; with any degree of credibility? The office of profit issue had a narrative that up to this point was pettiness, one plied upon the other, one farce chasing another, one impropriety followed by another. Sonia Gandhi has, at least in this instance, ensured that what was marked by pettiness, ends with an attempt to rise above it; that what was farce now acquires tragic proportions, requiring not only her resignation, but introspection on the part of several others; that what was thought of as impropriety ends up by setting new standards of propriety.

Sonia Gandhi8217;s resignation enhances her stature. But it speaks volumes about how low our general level of political morality is, that resignations which in other democracies would have been a part of routine propriety are shrouded with the mystique of sacrifice. But we ought to demystify this use of the word 8216;sacrifice8217;. Using the term to describe what Sonia Gandhi did is simply another reminder of the debased currency of our political discourse. We use the term 8216;sacrifice8217;, not to refer to some supreme act of self-deprivation, but simply when people do the right thing.

Sonia Gandhi is standing tall, because almost all the others are acting small. We keep calling this an act of sacrifice only because we have lost any conception of what is the right thing to do. To reduce her act to either a cynical interpretation that she will gain, or an emotional one that she has sacrificed, underscores that loss in our polity. In our polity there is no place for the simpler proposition: there is a right thing to be done. In this sense her gesture is far more radical than even her supporters in the Congress, who harp on the theme of sacrifice, recognise.

Much is made of the fact that sacrifice is very potent in Indian politics. But nothing could be farther from the truth. If sacrifice were really so politically potent, you would see far more resignations on matters of principle. If resignation leads to applause and profit, why don8217;t politicians line up to resign? Sonia Gandhi might have made a virtue out of necessity, but it is virtue nonetheless, especially since most of our political class is obdurate rather than virtuous even in the face of necessity.

The Congress party will not draw the right lesson from this episode. In fact, the very language of sacrifice, of the great moral leader coming in to sort out all wrongs committed by lesser lights in the party, does not strengthen the rule of law: it is only designed to give the leader an aura that is beyond law. What Morris Jones used the call the 8216;saintly idiom of Indian politics8217;. The language of sacrifice is not necessarily the same thing as institution building or the language of constitutional propriety.

Sonia Gandhi becomes an exemplar of proper behavior, but whether this exemplary power will be deployed to atone for the sins of her party or to transform its nature remains to be seen. If Sonia Gandhi is the Congress8217;s biggest asset, she ought to recognise that it can be her biggest liability. There is a tendency in the Congress to drop down the shutters on clear thinking whenever the name 8216;Sonia Gandhi8217; is at stake.

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Whosoever devised the Congress8217;s strategy to deal with the office of profit issue should be held accountable. Someone was being strategically incompetent. Of course there will be speculation about when exactly did Sonia Gandhi decide to resign. Did she resign only because the situation was getting irretrievable? How cognisant was she of her party8217;s strategy in this matter? Or was she, like the PM on occasions in the past, not privy to the shenanigans of lesser lights in the government who created an avoidable crisis? After all, the narrative in this crisis was depressingly familiar, as was the case in many other episodes: the party seemed to be trying to get away with whatever it could.

If Sonia Gandhi did not craft this particular procedural strategy for bringing in an ordinance, why does she put up with minions, whose zealous interpretation of her interests is often a source of embarrassment? The real disjuncture in the Congress is not between the government and the party. It is between two contradictory principles that everyone has to abide: the principle of authority, whereby everyone is competing to show how much they want to do for Sonia Gandhi; and the principles of constitutional morality. In this contest it is a no-brainer to guess which principle dominates the minds of the Congress party. Under such circumstances Sonia Gandhi could really transform the party by instituting a new culture.

There is no moment in recent times that simultaneously disarmed all political parties. The Left and the SP stand exposed; the BJP does not know what has hit it. The BJP has consistently miscalculated its strategy in dealing with Sonia Gandhi: first, they went for xenophobic petulance; when that backfired, then they went after her on issues of constitutional morality. Sonia Gandhi has not always shown great constitutional or moral judgment. But by doing the right thing this time she has upset all political calculations. Bofors or Scorpene, Bihar or Jharkhand will be history: people using those weapons will reveal their own littleness rather than produce charges that stick. It is too much to expect of politicians that they have courage of their convictions. Sonia Gandhi at least has demonstrated the conviction of her courage.

The writer is president, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi