No one has made as much a mockery of the Indian political system as Sonia Gandhi. Sonia has demonstrated to one and all how powerless and utterly ridiculous the Indian Democratic System can be made, provided you punch the right buttons. I salute the lady for her achievement! While leftists and rightists both tried their best to argue to the public about the lacunae in the political system, Sonia has demonstrated the same by example; also in turn demonstrating the impotency of facts and arguments (tark-aur-vimarsh) in the current set up.

The current case is ridiculous in more than one way. Sonia Gandhi had held many offices of profit even before she became an MP, primarily due to the distinction of being the Desh ki Bahuraani. Obviously so, otherwise how could the widow of an ex-PM survive while affording the pomp of the Gandhi family. But anyway, I digress.

Several of our MPs, not just from Congress but across parties held not only powerful positions but even converted their Membership to the parliament into 'Offices of Profit'. The very recent exposes of 'Cash for Questions' and 'MPLAD' are evidences of the above argument.

But, so what ?? Just like several our MPs face criminal charges against themselves - they hold offices of profit too. All they need is a re-affirmation from the people of their constituency that they are still idols of the constituency. A vote from just a fraction of the nation's population is enough in India to acquit Indian leaders from the most heinous crimes.

But this particular case became even more ridiculous when the BJP started a campaign against their very favourite enemy - Sonia Gandhi. I have never understood BJPs (or rather its leaders') obsession with Sonia. In this case, there were its own members and others who were multiple degrees more guilty than Sonia, but rather than attacking the issue at hand - BJP chose to attack the person; only to fall on its face.

To be frank, I quite agree that post Lok Sabha elections and even now, it was opposition's agitation against Sonia which led her to back out (and not any moral reason); in that respect the opposition might have achieved its goal. But in terms of bringing in real changes into the system - they have been a utter failure. This has primarily been because the opposition has concentrated on extremely short-term goals - and in the recent cases the short-term goal had one name - Sonia Gandhi.

When politics gets confined between a few personas and identities - it looses its sheen of being the agent of change. The reason is simple - personas are ephemeral while change is perpetual.

Opposition to Sonia's candidature for Prime Ministership was, for the BJP, a fight for nationalism. But they could never understand that their enemy was not Sonia; she was but an instrument. Their enemy was the selfish and abysmal mentality of India politicians. Not ready to share power among few experienced leaders, they invited an inexperienced persona to 'lead' them.

This time too, the enemy was not Sonia but the power-hunger of politicians. The hunger to amass as much power as they can - to assume as many positions on power as they can. But, once again, rather than attacking the root cause, the opposition has chosen to attack the person - and Sonia has befittingly demonstrated how democracy can be misused.

The next steps are quite predictable - Sonia will contest elections - the Gandhi-devoted people of the constituency will vote her back to power - and she will then, claiming 'people's vindication' of her stance officially hold 'Offices of Profit' and so would hundreds of other MPs. An ordinance that would have been passed in the meanwhile will be brought into the parliament and will be passed. The law makers will twist the law once again as the judiciary watches dumbfounded and media busies itself in garnering profits from the telecast of the histrionics!! The Indian Democracy meanwhile will watch its impotency being exploited once again and just hope for the rise of a just system in this land.

For Sonia this will be a step towards even greater power over her party and people. Indeed this was for her - 'the right thing to do ...'

Also Read: http://greatbong.net/2006/03/24/an-aesops-fable