The Nation: Congress [A Point to Prove]

Sonia is keen to show that she is no ornamental chief and, unlike her predecessors, is using her perception of people's skills to strengthen the party.

For a centenarian party that swears by traditions and moth-eaten rule books, it was quite a culture shock. Last week, as Digvijay Singh, Congress chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, came to meet party President Sonia Gandhi at the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters in Delhi, two securitymen stopped him at the door of the small cubicle of her personal assistant V. George that leads to her chamber. Digvijay is no stranger in the corridors of the 24 Akbar Road buildings. And, being one of the two chief ministers who have still kept the Congress flag flying in the mainline states, the other one is J.B. Patnaik of Orissa, he is used to a heartier welcome at the party offices. A dismayed Digvijay, after reasoning somewhat sheepishly with a few Congress Seva Dal volunteers present at the spot, finally could crane into the room and plead: "May I come in, George?"

Digvijay's troubled entry into the party president's room, and the subsequent discussion, weren't much for him to commemorate. Though the party did quite as well as in 1996, he was at a loss to explain to the president -- a person of few words but with the searching eyes of a careful shopper -- the defeat of some of the party's heavyweight candidates. Within hours of Digvijay's leaving the room, there were wild rumours at the AICC headquarters that Madhya Pradesh might get a new chief minister before the assembly polls later this year.

The fear of the new broom at the AICC is temporarily suppressed under the roses, garlands and bouquets at the "janata darshan" on the lawns of her 10 Janpath residence. The musical score to the frenzied welcome is provided by a loudspeaker-van which blares out, to the tune of an old Hindi-film hit number: Jab jab Bharat par museebat ayee, Nehru pariwar ne laaj bachayee (Whenever India has fallen into bad times, the Nehru family has saved its honour). The afternoon rush to Sonia's residence, separated from the aicc headquarters by a narrow lane, leaves a half-a-kilometre stretch of Akbar Road lined with cars on both sides.

However, underneath the pomp and circumstance, there are ominous portents for the entrenched leadership of the party which feels threatened. Sonia's readiness to apply the knife, on what she thinks to be dead tissue, is evident from the following examples:

Partymen have also been taken off guard by Sonia's unsuspected ability to assess the outcome of her moves. Sarvjit Singh, a recently appointed joint secretary of the party known for his close links with 10 Janpath, says that she "speaks through signals". Her invitation to P.V. Narasimha Rao to attend the CPP meeting, according to Sarvjit, is "not just an inter-personal communication" but a "signal" that all factions are welcome. Similarly, by holding her office at the AICC chamber, and gradually lowering the security net, she is getting across the message that she is no ornamental president.

However, the mystique of Sonia may wear off in a few weeks after her appointment is ratified by the AICC delegates on April 6. Will she rebuild the party for a battle outside Parliament, or try and garner allies in the 12th Lok Sabha in toppling the Government? A Congress Working Committee (CWC) member hopes that she doesn't invite the United Front (UF) as a partner in this game. But Sonia's cheerleaders think that she has reasons to seek a change in government within the present Lok Sabha. Or else, they argue, there will be disappointment among many UF leaders, notably Jyoti Basu, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav, who have welcomed Sonia's taking charge of the Congress.

However, uppermost on her agenda right now is the task of restructuring a rudderless party by chucking passengers, taking new rowers on board and trimming its sails. The blueprint for a perestroika is reportedly on the drawing board. But members of her inner circle are passionately talking of a three-tier system in which there may be a consultative committee, a small core group within the CWC, and a team of younger leaders who are expected to give the party its cutting edge. In the consultative circle, the names that are being talked about include former diplomats and civil servants like M.K. Rasgotra and Abid Hussain, apart from senior politicians like Madhavsinh Solanki and, surprisingly, Sitaram Kesri. The CWC core group may be a repeat of the present committee for coordination. However, the frontline may be manned by younger leaders both within and outside Parliament -- such as Ajit Jogi, Kamal Nath, Tariq Anwar, Najma Heptullah, Murli Deora, Ashok Gehlot, Giridhar Gomango, Dev, Fernandes and Girija Vyas.

In the late '60s, when Indira Gandhi fought the "Syndicate" and built her faction into a fighting party, she was guided by years of political experience. Sonia is a political novice with the handicap of an acquired nationality. Yet she is trying to restore the party with her own perception of people's skills. Her predecessors did not even try.

VINCENT GEORGE
Key to Power

Some typists held the key to power -- literally -- in the Nehru-Gandhi set-up. Like the late Yashpal Kapoor, personal assistant to Indira Gandhi, who became the shorthand for power. Or R.K. Dhawan, Kapoor's nephew, who stepped into the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) with a notebook, and soon become a copybook power broker. Now it is the turn of Vincent George, Sonia Gandhi's personal assistant, to guard the access door to the new president of India's second largest party. Anybody seeking an audience with her, no matter how important, must meet George first. If he is satisfied, he'll press enter. Or else, delete.

The 43-year-old Man Friday of 10 Janpath, who moved last week to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters to assist his boss in her new role, is no stranger to power. In November 1984, he followed his earlier master Rajiv Gandhi into the PMO as the youngest private secretary to a prime minister. A former winner of the "fastest typist in Kerala" prize (120 words per minute) awarded by a typewriter manufacturer, George also proved a fast climber as he got into Rajiv's inner circle after two prime ministerial buddies -- Arun Nehru and Arun Singh -- had fallen from grace. From there, he was quick to learn that the secret of his job lay in being amiable from the outside but tough inside. Partymen and lobbyists held him in awe and nicknamed him "King George".

The man, however, has no king-size ego. He is just loyal to the Gandhi family. After Rajiv's assassination in 1991, and Sonia's refusal to take charge of the party, he remained at the 10 Janpath office which had suddenly ceased to be the storm-centre of politics. In the following seven years when the lady of the house chose to remain a private person, George smilingly distanced himself from the hurly-burly of Congress politics. Nor was it the first time that he adjusted his life to the ups and downs in the Gandhis' political fortunes. In 1977, when his erstwhile superior, Margaret Alva, then an AICC joint secretary, deserted Indira Gandhi, he joined the staff of the former prime minister at 12 Willingdon Crescent. In his record of loyalty to the family, George stands much taller than his predecessors. M.O. Mathai, pa to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, scandalised his master in a much-publicised autobiography in the '70s. Dhawan had lost Rajiv's trust. But George is the ultimate Mr Faithful. Sonia, in her new role, may enlist the services of the AICC secretariat. But few doubt that the access to her will remain under "Georgian rule".
--Harish Gupta