Sonia set a new paradigm in politics

Sonia Gandhi has created a new paradigm in politics. Politics is not all about pelf, post and position. It is more about single-minded service, sacrifice and larger social good.

This is reminiscent of Mahatma Gandhi's Constructive Programme. Gandhiji brought out an 18-Point Constructive Programme that includes Popularizing Khadi, Prohibition, Removal of Untouchability, Ser-vice of Leprosy Patients, Nai Tal8eem, etc., to prove the point that politics is not about power play but service and social good. Sonia Gandhi held out this very vision.

Setting a personal example, Sonia Gandhi gave up the highest post of Prime Minister of India. She never announced it earlier. It was after she was elected as the Leader of Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) and Leader of the UPA Parliamentary Party that the then President A P J Abdul Kalam extended the Pres-idential Invite to Sonia Gandhi to become the Prime Minister and form her government. Anyone else, at that stage, would have quietly grabbed the post. It required someone of the moral fibre of Sonia Gandhi to remain firmly committed to her convictions.

Sonia Gandhi showed her class when she stuck to her innate conviction and politely, but firmly, declined the post of Prime Minister. Instead, she nominated Dr Manmohan Singh, which again showed her ster-ling character. She wanted someone with a clean image, like Dr Manmohan Singh, to be the Prime Minis-ter. Dr Manmohan Singh is also an economist, who, under Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, steered the economic reforms in 1991. Living up to her expectations, Dr Manmohan Singh did steer the econo-my to bloom, where the average GDP was 8 per cent, which is unmatched since he demitted office.

Sonia Gandhi's greatest contribution is her reassertion of the primacy of socialism in these times of liber-alisation, privatisation and globalisation. While the Congress-led UPA government led to the creation of wealth, it was used for the larger social good. The Aajeevika Mission for Livelihoods for Women and Ma-hatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) are shining examples of her vi-sion.

Soon after taking over as Congress President, Sonia Gandhi visited Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh. She expressed a desire to visit some homes to mingle with the poor and understand their problems issues. To her shock, she found several houses were locked in the village in Anantapur district. When she en-quired about the reasons, she learnt that the migrant labour moved to nearby metros, like Bengaluru, in search of employment avenues.

That is when Sonia Gandhi resolved to create conditions where people need not migrate to far-off places in search of jobs. Instead, the government should make it possible to give jobs to people that is guaran-teed for a minimum of 100 days, during the lean period when there are no agricultural operations. Soon after coming to power at the Centre in 2004, the Congress-led UPA government passed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Parliament in 2005 and it was imple-mented in 2006.

The MGNREGA was first launched in Bandlapalli village in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh on February 2, 2006. Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Bandlapalli village in Anantapur district for the 10th anniversary of the launch of MGNREGA.

In fact, credit goes to Sonia Gandhi for unveiling the rights-based architecture, where social security was a matter of right. In a democracy, people are the masters. Creating social security and safety net is not Rewari or freebie, but their basic right. It is this idea that actuated her Rights-based architecture.

Right to Information, Right to Employment under MGNREGA, Right to Education and Right to Food un-der the National Food Security Act. Prime Minister Narendra Modi pompously declared MGNREGA to be the "Monument of UPA Failures" but had to fall back on MGNREGA and National Food Security Act dur-ing Covid pandemic.

To this day, Prime Minister Modi never tires of declaring that 80 per cent of the population receives free rations, which is made possible by the National Food Security Act.

Sonia Gandhi prompted the Congress-led UPA government to come up with meaningful initiatives that materially improve the living conditions of the vulnerable and weaker sections of society. Some of the finest examples are: Indira Awas Yojana for housing of rural poor; Rajiv Awas Yojana for housing for ur-ban poor; Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana for rural electrification; Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which became Smart City; and Nirmal Bharrat, which became Swachch Bharat.

As a result of Sonia Gandhi's initiatives, nearly 30 crore people were raised Above Poverty Line, which is a figure of the World Bank and not a claim of the Congress party. In contrast, under the Modi dispensa-tion, 23 crore people were pushed Below Poverty Line. At the Burari AICC Session in 2010, Sonia Gandhi unveiled her Blueprint to tackle the menace of corruption, instead of merely talking and not doing any-thing against corruption, like the Opposition.

Giving a clarion call to “confront corruption head-on,” the then Congress President Sonia Gandhi out-lined an Action Plan in a powerful no holds-barred speech. She told the Congress-led UPA Government to seriously consider State Funding of Elections; Fast-Tracking of all cases that concern Corruption by Public Servants, including politicians; Legislating to ensure Transparency in Public Procurement and Con-tracts; and an “open, competitive system of exploiting natural resources.”

Simultaneously, she urged all Congress Chief Ministers and Central Ministers to review and relinquish all “discretionary powers,” particularly in land allocation, as she stressed that they “breed corruption.” Lok Pal was a classic instance when the government joined hands with the Civil Society to Draft Anti-Corruption Law.

Earlier, Sonia Gandhi successfully tapped into the Civil Society to help formulate meaningful social poli-cies and programmes through the National Advisory Council (NAC), which she headed as the Chairper-son, during the tenure of the Congress-led UPA Government.

Throughout her active political innings from 1998 to 2023, Sonia Gandhi has been a leader full of ideas, responding to changing political and economic circumstances and devising ways and means to meet the new situation.

Soon after Sonia Gandhi took over as Congress President on March 6, 1998, she held a brainstorming session, or Chintan-Shivir, in Panchmarhi in Madhya Pradesh in September 1998. Two more major Chintan-Shivirs were organized in Shimla in Himachal Pradesh in 2003 and in Udaipur in Rajasthan in 2022. Sonia Gandhi's major contribution is to revive the party at a time when disintegration stared it in the face. At a historic juncture, she stepped in to turn the tide in favour of the Congress, making it once again a formidable force that the Congress is in the Congress today.

(Writer is Ex-MLC, former APCC President and presently Special Invitee to Congress Working Committee (CWC). Views are personal.)