Sonia shoots UPA troubles

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has come up with certain measures for a better synergy between the Congress and the UPA government. Her late...

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has come up with certain measures for a better synergy between the Congress and the UPA government. Her latest instruction to office-bearers: Party general secretary of a state should brief the Prime Minister before his visit to the state.

The Prime Minister’s office went into a tizzy last week when four senior party leaders came to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. And it was apparent that they had not come to wish him on Dussehra. Ambika Soni and Ghulam Nabi Azad briefed the PM about Kashmir. They were followed by Ahmed Patel and Salman Khurshid, who is general secretary in charge of Tamil Nadu. Singh is slated to go to J-K after id, and Soni and Azad are believed to have gone over the possible notes that the PM could strike while in the state. J-K Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed was in the Capital a few days back to firm up the visit and go over the package the Prime Minister would announce.

Patel and Khurshid are believed to have discussed the PM’s visit to Tamil Nadu for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Department of Atomic Energy, and for the inauguration of the country’s fast breeder reactor programme at Kalpakkam.

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The PM was also scheduled to call on M. Karunanidhi, a meeting that was given high political billing but was called off because the DMK chief took off to Kodaikanal to finish the script of a film.

Meanwhile, alliance chief Sonia Gandhi meets Manmohan Singh in a one to one session every Friday evening, unless either of them is not in town. But another important mechanism she has evolved is the creation of what can be described as the “Congress politburo”, to take major political decisions.

After the PM-Sonia meeting, they are usually joined by five others — Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh, Shivraj Patil, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel.

The idea of the “politburo” meeting is to do brainstorming on issues before the government and try and evolve a consensus on what can be done in a given situation. The politburo, for instance, discussed the Shibu Soren case when it first resurfaced, and also what could be done after his release. He has been informed that he will be taken back into the Cabinet in the reshuffle that is on the cards in early November.

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Similarly, the “politburo” also gave thought to handling Manipur. It was of the view that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act be removed from the Greater Imphal area to defuse the situation which erupted in July after the alleged rape and murder of Manorama Devi. This core group of senior ministers and party leaders opposed the reimposition of the Act, when some people raised the issue.

The Savarkar issue, the handling of the Tiranga Yatra, the Censor Board controversy, the Left’s growing demands, the Maharashtra situation — all these are believed to have come up for discussion.

There are two other mechanisms in place — the UPA’s coordination committee, which meets from time to time and another group that has the Left parties meeting with the UPA’s representatives.

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