A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME: To Sonia Gandhi secularism and Hinduism appear synonymous A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME: To Sonia Gandhi secularism and Hinduism appear synonymous

How things change. In the days of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, one grouse of Congress dissidents was that the supreme leader listened to nobody.

Sonia Gandhi, the current party president, has upturned this logic. She listens to everybody. An example of this eclectic system of decision-making was provided this past week when the Congress Working Committee (CWC) passed a resolution affirming that "Hinduism is the most effective guarantor of secularism in India".

In one deft move, the BJP had been deprived of its USP. The original saffron party could do no more than issue a statement which, divested of all the verbiage, only meant: "We said it first."



Sonia's rightward tilt is the culmination of a process that began soon after the Pachmarhi conclave of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in September. Veteran partyman V.N. Gadgil had called on Sonia and congratulated her on the Congress' first such brainstorming session in two decades.

This was followed by an awkward hesitation. It was obvious Gadgil had a point to make. Nudged by Sonia, he opened up: "Madam, your visit to the famous Mahadev temple was not as widely publicised as it should have been."



Gadgil left without waiting for a reply. Sonia had got the message though. To completely negate the political disadvantage of her Italian Roman Catholic origins, it was important for Sonia to be seen as comfortable with her adopted country's traditions and ethos.



The lady immediately mended matters. Her visit to Pushkar was used effectively by her media managers. A pilgrimage to the Golden Temple was also announced. It didn't materialise because the Intelligence Bureau warned her of the security threat in a border-proximate district like Amritsar.

The trip was cancelled but Sikh groups presented saropas (shawls) to Sonia at her residence. Next on the agenda was an address to the Ramakrishna Mission on January 12. Now Sonia is readying for a visit to Tirupati and then to Shirdi.



The anti-Christian violence in Gujarat in December temporarily upset plans. Even so, Sonia was careful not to get embroiled in a debate on conversions. She realised elements in the BJP camp were itching to provoke her.

She didn't give them a chance and instead asked senior party leaders to issue a statement condemning the insinuation that "aggressive acts of conversion by Christian groups are a direct consequence of support given to them by the Congress party".

Sonia herself took the battle to a more elevated plane. Her address to the Ramakrishna Mission eulogised Swami Vivekananda and rejected a narrow-focused Hinduism.



While an RSS leader dismissed her interpretation of the great monk's philosophy as incomplete and "lifted... from the pocket book, Thus Spoke Swami Vivekananda, intended for school-going children", the fact is much preparation went into Sonia's three-page speech.

Gadgil, Arjun Singh and Ahmed Patel were consulted and Girija Vyas came up with the vital Sanskrit phrases. Crudely put, the Congress' parallel track method means this: Sonia will woo Hindus; the party will handle the Christian question.

This strategy was evident on January 13 when P.A. Sangma, former Lok Sabha Speaker, made a strange but strong statement.

"Sonia Gandhi is not a practising Christian," he declared, "and does not go to church." Since Sonia is careful not to let anybody in the party speak on her behalf, it is clear that Sangma's comments on her personal beliefs had her sanction.



Two days later, it was back to overt wooing. Arjun moved a resolution at the CWC in effect endorsing Sonia's January 12 contention that "India is secular primarily because Hinduism, both as a philosophy and as a way of life, has been based on what our ancients said: Ekam satyam, vipraha bahudha vadanti (Truth is one, the wise pursue it variously)."



For Arjun, who walked out of the Congress in the early '90s accusing P.V. Narasimha Rao of "compromising secularism" and soft Hindutva, the recognition of the centrality of Hinduism to Indian life must be a novel experience.

Even so, senior Congressmen insist there is a difference between the Sonia and Rao approaches: the difference between Hinduism and Hindutva. Having successfully defused the mandir lobby, Sonia has taken the battle to another turf: Mandal.

In yet another of her surprises, she has indicated support for caste-based reservations within the larger 33 per cent quota proposed for women in legislative bodies.

Having put the BJP on the backfoot, she now seeks to york the OBC brigade in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Under Sonia, the Congress is certainly learning the virtues of reverse swing.

