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Sunday, Jun 06, 2004

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Perfect harmony

The beginning has been rather auspicious. The Prime Minister enjoys the complete trust of the Congress president.

THE PRIME Minister, Manmohan Singh, must be the first to know that the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, is the source of his greatest strength as well as a potential source of paralysing weakness.

The two have been trying hard to strike a decent rhythm in their relationship, without undermining the institutional prestige and dignity to which Dr. Singh is entitled but also without making the Congress president feel that she is not consulted.

Ms. Gandhi has been named chairperson of the National Advisory Council to Monitor the Implementation of the Common Minimum Programme. This is the best possible device as also a transparent arrangement. She will have the rank and status of a Cabinet Minister.

Armed with the new official status, she would be able to interact with the officials without inviting the charge of being an extra-constitutional authority. Yet by accepting a position with a Cabinet status, she ipso facto acknowledges the institutional superiority of the office Dr. Singh holds.

Ms. Gandhi is reportedly rather mindful of protocol. In the initial days of government making, it was the Prime Minister who was travelling all the time to 10 Janpath. But she is hoping to impress upon Dr. Singh that there is really no need for him to call on her every time the two have to have a discussion.

Ever since the new Government has been sworn in, the Prime Minister's visits to 10 Janpath have been few and far between. On the other hand, Ms. Gandhi has been travelling to 7 Race Course Road for meetings of the United Progressive Alliance.

She has also drawn a laxman rekha that her political advisers — Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, Salman Khursheed and Jairam Ramesh — will not try to entangle themselves in governmental affairs. "Government will be run by the government people, the party will be run by the party apparatchiks," says one of the advisers.

Dr. Singh will continue to be a member of the Congress Working Committee, and as such will be answerable to the party's highest decision-making body. At the same time, the intra-coalition troubles are better dealt with at the party level, as indeed was done with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and later the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. As the Congress president, Ms. Gandhi is a useful buffer between the Prime Minister and other constituents in the UPA.

The beginning has been rather auspicious. The Prime Minister continues to enjoy the complete trust of the Congress president. It is only the beginning of what should be a long journey but no one should underestimate the potential of the tale-carriers.

Within days of the regime change, some bureaucrats were heard proclaiming loud and clear that because of this or that service in the past to Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi, they would be the new favourites. These busybodies will be found out, sooner or later, but meanwhile they can cause a great amount of misunderstanding.

Ms. Gandhi, for now, appears to be perfectly happy in letting the Prime Minister bask in the limelight, but he himself is a reluctant glory-chaser.

As long as she remains at ease with the arrangement, Dr. Singh will make an untroubled Prime Minister.

H.K

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