The Hindu Business Line : <I>The Sonia method </I>

When Ms Sonia Gandhi let the opportunity to become Prime Minister of the UPA Government pass in May 2004, the nation was shocked and the world surprised at this renunciation.

As she said then, she was listening to her "inner voice", and that she saw no alternative to abiding by the principles she had been guided all along.

Clearly, her reading of the political situation, as it obtained at that point of time, was that her taking over the reins of the Government would neither add to the strength of the regime nor make it stable.

Whether she was justified in her decision not to accept the PM's job is something that will never be known for certain today because one does know how she would have performed as Prime Minister.

What one can say with some confidence is that she did well to appoint Dr Manmohan Singh for the top job in the Government because, as events have shown, he has been just the right man in the UPA to fill the slot not only because of his economic acumen but also because of his accommodative but firm temperament, which has earned him respect from across the political spectrum.

On Thursday, Ms Gandhi employed a qualitatively similar tactic when she gave up her membership of the Lok Sabha and resigned as chairperson of the National Advisory Council in response to the controversy which had broken out after the UPA Government adjourned Parliament's Budget session sine die ostensibly to allow it to issue an Ordinance which would have taken her (and other MPs) out of the purview of the Act which disqualifies members from holding "offices of profit".

The step has been applauded by the unsuspecting average citizen, which is political capital for Ms Gandhi who has already said that she would be fighting for the Rae Bareli seat once again.

She has done this twice, on both occasions strengthening her political position. Her objective is power although, on the face of it, she is sacrificing positions of power.

Astuteness is written all over, which could pay impressive dividends in the years ahead.

Ranabir Ray Choudhury