Sunil Sethi: The regency of Sonia Gandhi

AL FRESCO

History is replete with instances of ruling figures who not actually occupy office but operate from behind the throne. They are known as regents.

A multitude of reasons may have prevented them from directly assuming the crown "" a difference of clan, community, creed, lineage. Regents are guardian figures or supremos, personages of higher authority, who prefer to stay in the background.

Most historic examples of regents, it is true, are from feudal times of dynasty and kingship, when canny generals, ministers, consorts or even saintly figures wielded greater power than the person in the hot seat.

Closer in our time, it is doubtful, for instance, that someone like Mahatma Gandhi would have stood for electoral office.

His crusade was chiefly political but he set the agenda for the freedom struggle in a larger moral and ethical context. For decades no Congress leader could make a move without consulting the Mahatma, yet the "great soul" was above party politics.

In functioning democracies, though, it is extremely unusual for an elected leader to turn down the top job, though recently there is another example, of Shiv Sena boss Bal Thackeray, relishing the role of supremo, the "chief minister by remote control" in his own phrase.

Sonia Gandhi's refusal to be prime minister, although she is the chosen party leader, also architect and stage manager of the Congress victory, harks back to a another age.

The regency of Queen Sonia has begun, with her mysterious compulsion to heed her "inner voice". What this voice really said or why it spoke at that moment, no one will ever know. It will be a point of debate for years, just as future historians will be piecing together the many factors that led to her refusal.

Immediate responses though are worth recording. What a very large number of people view her rejection of the PM's post with relief; it seems to have enhanced her public image and personal prestige.

It could be that most Indians are so accustomed to the idea of power-seeking politicians scrambling for the gaddi, that an actual rejection is seen almost as an act of renunciation, in consonance with the traditional view of the good ruler who advocates tyaga or sacrifice. (In reality this is not quite the case: Sonia Gandhi remains party president and leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party and will soon be elevated to a lofty role in the newly-christened United Progressive Front).

Many others believe her stepping aside and putting in her candidate was a political master stroke that took the wind out her opponents' sails.

Dr Manmohan Singh has the symbolic qualities of Everyman "" acceptable to the procrastinating Left, a jittery stock market, the urban middle class; he also served the twin purpose of offering an olive branch to the Sikhs and defanging the likes of Sushma Swaraj and Uma Bharati.

But there are family members and close friends, including son Rahul, who have suggested that Sonia Gandhi never intended to be prime minister; that for her, the real battle lay in pulling the party up by its bootstraps and bringing it back centre stage as a viable alternative to the BJP.

Cynics believe that Sonia Gandhi's real motive in turning down the prime ministership is to work towards a clearer verdict in the next election, and so buy time to groom the family's heir apparent Rahul Gandhi for the top job. In history, after all, that is often the real purpose of a regency "" to await the heir attaining political maturity.

Still, how does that explain the endless waffling and shuffling, the high drama and histrionics that went on for five long days between the election result on May 13 and the famous "inner voice" speech on May 18 ?

It was an embarrassingly long wait in the age of the electronic voting machine, a puzzling stretch of time when the world awaited a decision in the largest functioning democracy. Indian voters did not seem unduly bothered by the delay for here was a live political soap to beat anything they watch on TV.

How will India's new regency "" the ruling troika of a supreme deity above, an honest and dedicated prime minister and a fractious multi-party cabinet "" pan out? Even in the age of coalition governments it won't be easy.

The pulls and pressures of ideology, region, populist and market forces will threaten to upset the balancing act. Queen Sonia regency will only be notable in history if it passes the endurance test, of serving a full five-year term.