T N Ninan: Tell-tale site

WEEKEND RUMINATIONS

"Congratulations to Smt Sonia Gandhi for leading the Congress Party to Victory in the Lok Sabha Elections 2004". That is what greets you on the first page of the Congress party website, along with a map of India with the party's election symbol super-imposed on it. Click through to the next page and you get a picture of Sonia and, underneath a pantheon of past party leaders, more homage: "Soniajis (sic) resignation takes the wind out of the sails of the opposition ..." (no mention yet of the Rae Bareli landslide on Thursday). And in case you haven't got the drift, after a one-liner on the party's 82nd plenary at Hyderabad, you have the following listed: Speech of Shri Rahul Gandhi, MP, on the Union Budget in the Lok Sabha ""9th March 2006; Soniaji""interview by Rajdeep Sardesai; Soniaji""interview by Barkha Dutt. And then: "Smt Sonia Gandhi elected Congress President, overwhelming support from all states"""below which is a picture of the lady being garlanded. On the right-hand side, you have a quote from the party president on why the Congress is unique, and on the left the party office address and telephone numbers. All this under a banner that proclaims: "The largest democratic party in the world".

So is this a family enterprise in the name of a party? If in doubt, scroll down to what is next on offer: the 75th anniversary of the Dandi salt march. Click to see the pictures; of the six, five have Sonia Gandhi in the centre of the frame, the sixth has (you guessed it) Rahul Gandhi. And then, as a footnote to it all, there is mention of Election 2004, of "Our Prime Minister" (who's he, you're tempted to ask), and then the Common Minimum Programme. Look at the buttons at the top of the page designed to get you deeper into the website, and the first button says "Rajiv Gandhi"; the next says "Our president", followed (finally) by buttons on history (though there is nothing on the economic reforms""poor Narasimha Rao), organisation, documents, and so on. Throughout the website, other than a solitary picture of Manmohan Singh, the only pictures of people who aren't dead are of the party president and, occasionally, of her son. Should one laugh or cry?

Other political party websites uniformly have a broader focus. The BJP predictably highlights three leaders (Vajpayee, Advani and Rajnath Singh); but it has photographs of other party stalwarts as well, and gives special attention to Pramod Mahajan. The CPI(M)'s website is sharply focused on issues and is therefore more text-oriented; there is a solitary photograph of the party general secretary, Prakash Karat, who gets the same prominence and treatment as the other members of the central committee. The Telugu Desam, identified with one man at least as much as the Congress is with Sonia and the Gandhi family, has Chandrababu Naidu sharing the spotlight with the party founder, NT Rama Rao.

Anyone who has met Sonia Gandhi comes away with the impression of a practical, level-headed person who addresses questions even when she could duck them. So here are some questions: is this website of the Congress the way Sonia Gandhi wants it? What does this total adulation say about the sycophancy that surrounds her, and her own responsibility for creating such an atmosphere? To be sure, we don't have in the Congress the full-length prostration on the ground that Jayalalithaa, who has just lost Tamil Nadu, expects from her senior-most colleagues in the AIADMK; but the unfortunate truth is that the website probably reflects Congress reality. Sonia is the party's rainmaker when it comes to votes, and there is little doubt that the glue that holds the party together is the Gandhi family. Take that away, and the party may break up into little pieces""as was happening in 1998, till Sonia stepped in and took charge. But having conceded all this and more, does the party really need to project a message that says "Congress is Sonia, Sonia is Congress"?