| Sonia Gandhi seems to have made a habit of surprising
people. She baffled political pundits by deciding to campaign and then astounded them by
the crowds she drew. It would have been enough if she left it at that. But her capacity to
surprise is unending. In the past few weeks the sheer scale and style of her campaign has
left the nation awestruck. The quiet Italian-Indian has stormed across the country. As our
cover headline puts it, it's been nothing short of a blitzkrieg. Underestimating Sonia could have a price, especially for the
opposition. Attending meeting after meeting -- it will be 138 when she finishes -- she
constantly displayed a resolve, a stamina and a political savvy that was unexpected.
Merely ascending a stage, waving to the crowds and saying a few banal lines in the local
language did not satisfy her. Instead, she virtually hijacked the Congress party. In this
election, she is the party, she is the campaign. It is as if the AICC headquarters has
shifted address from 24 Akbar Road to 10 Janpath. And she runs the campaign her way. She
never travels with party leaders, rarely endorses a local candidate, and speaks
continuously about the Gandhi legacy.
The only thing not surprising was that reporting the Sonia
show remains a harrowing experience. Information on her is still hard to come by, as
Senior Editor Sumit Mitra and Associate Editors Harinder Baweja and Harish Gupta were
reminded while reporting the story. Yet, if friends of the Gandhis once faced a social
death warrant for speaking to the press, today they are a trifle more forthcoming. At
least they have an idea of what Sonia is up to; Congress officials have little. As an AICC
spokesman told Gupta, "When she expressed regret for Operation Bluestar in
Chandigarh, it took all of us in the party by surprise." Question
is, what surprises does the electorate hold for her?
(Aroon Purie) |
