Sonia Gandhi is not to contest from Amethi - for now. That leaves no one any wiser about whether or not she will contest - eventually. No matter. Indians are by now accustomed to taking things in their stride where Sonia Gandhi is concerned.France had a queen in Marie Antoinette who would have her people eat cake when they had no bread. To judge Sonia's insouciance, she could view herself as an uncrowned queen, and this one is inclined to have her cake and eat it too. Accountability, answerability, commitment: these are not principles that have inspired Sonia Gandhi on her long and painfully slow march into full-fledged politics. As in every single instance of her shadowy political career so far, what comes across from her latest refusal to be pinned down is a singular unwillingness to commit herself, a refusal to take responsibility for the results her campaign will have. All this while she has tacitly demanded authority, allegiance and commitment from others. She has got it too, from a party clutching at straws. The question is, should she, and will she, get it from the people as well? There is something to be said for Sonia Gandhi. Even if it is for discouraging - feudal, dynastic, nostalgic - reasons, she has been drawing big crowds. Of course, the Indian voter is no less an enigma than the lady herself. He may throng to her meetings yet fail to be sufficiently moved to favour her party. But he does go to see and hear her. This has to be acknowledged by the elite which finds the utterly undemocratic nature of her involvement in Indian politics distasteful. If the people have a mind to choose their leaders in a feudal spirit, who is a small elite to complain? Even more importantly, it ought to be acknowledged by Sonia herself. She threw away the privilege of practising her very own brand of behind-the-scenes, purdah politics when she made the decision to come out and campaign for the Congress. Whether or not she contests the election now will make no difference to this. The gloves are off, and there is no putting them back on again.Actually contesting and winning would give Sonia a proven democratic mandate that would have to silence her critics. But she does have a very good reason for not trying to translate public approval into a genuine democratic mandate, even after being severely reviled. It is that her hold on her party is in inverse proportion to her direct exposure to the hurly-burly of public life. Sonia suits the Congress party as a trump card-in-abeyance, to be pulled out strategically. She has been sagacious enough to recognise this since her husband's death. Coming out to campaign for the party has made her vulnerable to the attacks of democracy supporters. The next step to an election, although it might reinstate her in their eyes, would make her vulnerable to the sharks of her own party who would not hesitate to throw her to the dogs when it suited them. Perhaps Sonia will take that risk - eventually. She remains enigmatic enough to defy prediction. But the reasons for her hesitation are not far to seek. And whatever her personal constraints, that still leaves her an extra-constitutional force in Indian politics.
