30212: Congress culture defines Sonia Gandhi's role
The Gandhis remain coy as to which of their many advisors are "in" and
which are "out," leading to endless speculation, and large numbers of
people claiming to be "close to the Gandhi family."
30212, 04/06/2005 13:16, 05NEWDELHI2602, Embassy New Delhi,
CONFIDENTIAL,, "This record is a partial extract of the original
cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.061316Z
Apr 05","C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 002602
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/06/2015 TAGS: PGOV, PINR, ECON, IN, Indian
Domestic Politics
SUBJECT: CONGRESS CULTURE DEFINES SONIA GANDHI'S ROLE
Classified By: DCM Robert O. Blake, Jr. for Reasons 1.4 (B, D)
1.(C) Summary: Since the Congress-dominated government has been in
power, there have been widespread allegations by the opposition BJP
and media commentators that party President Sonia Gandhi has been
pulling the strings of government. Our conversations with a wide
variety of insiders suggest that her role is more muted and nuanced.
She has deliberately attempted to preserve the image of being ""above
the fray"" politically, taking maximum advantage of Congress culture,
which prescribes that the party figurehead be surrounded by an ""inner
coterie"" to provide advice, and shield the leader from criticism and
dissent. The Gandhis remain coy as to which of their many advisors are
""in"" and which are ""out,"" leading to endless speculation, and
large numbers of people claiming to be ""close to the Gandhi family.""
Mrs. Gandhi also heads the National Advisory Council, the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) Steering Committee, and a committee that
administers relations with the Left Front (LF). She restricts her role
in these meetings to presiding as chair and utilizes senior Congress
leaders to do the talking. Embassy contacts emphasize that Mrs. Gandhi
prefers to wield power behind the scenes, relying on discrete
back-channel communications with key figures in Congress and allied
parties to address outstanding problems. While this elaborate system
protects her from blame for GOI shortcomings, it also complicates
honest assessments, as her handlers strictly control information flow
and access. End Summary.
The Web Around Sonia
--------------------
2. (C) For decades, Congress culture has had an ""inner coterie""
around the Gandhi family, to offer them advice and protect them from
dissenting opinions and criticism. The family has been secretive about
who belongs to the inner circle, which makes it difficult to define
the current membership. Embassy contacts claim that this complex web
assists and inhibits Mrs. Gandhi to wield power. While the BJP accuses
Mrs. Gandhi of acting ""as a shadow Prime Minister,"" our contacts
generally agree that she and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have
defined their roles, with the PM acting as a corruption-free
technocrat handling governance, who remains above the political fray,
while Mrs. Gandhi concentrates on the constant give-and-take
associated with running an enormous political party with tens of
millions of members and a disparate coalition.
3. (C) Mrs. Gandhi's three principal advisors, Ahmed Patel, Ambika
Soni and Jairam Ramesh, have served the Gandhi family for many years,
and derive their power through proximity to her. Party insiders
believe that Soni is on the ascendant and currently among those
individuals that Mrs. Gandhi trusts the most. Ramesh is primarily
viewed as a thinker and wordsmith, who drafts Mrs. Gandhi's speeches
and helps shape her views. Insiders dismiss Ahmed Patel as an
intellectual lightweight, known primarily for his skills as a
political ""errand boy"" who gets things done behind the scenes for
Mrs. Gandhi. His star has fallen after allegedly mismanaging recent
assembly elections in Jharkhand and Bihar.
4. (C) Unlike the advisors, who tend to remain with the Gandhis over
the long-term, individual politicians move in and out of Mrs. Gandhi's
inner circle. At present, the three most prominent include HRD
Minister Arjun Singh, Party General Secretary Digvijay Singh, and
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. All three are extremely ambitious
and would like to become Prime Minister. According to our sources,
Arjun Singh's chances are fading, as he is viewed as too old and too
overbearing. Sharad Pawar, once plagued by ill health, seems to have
recovered and is considered one of the most senior and competent of
the old Congress leadership. Digvijay Singh, the former Chief Minister
of Madhya Pradesh, is highly regarded as one of the few senior
Congress leaders with the ""common touch."" Foreign Minister Natwar
Singh, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Defense Minister Pranab
Mukherjee occupy a separate orbit of super Ministers whose
long-standing personal ties to the Gandhi family and seniority in
Congress politics allow direct personal access to Mrs. Gandhi, and
routine input on Congress decision making across a range of issues. Of
these three, Mukherjee is clearly the most formidable -- and
reportedly harbors the greatest hope of some day becoming Prime
Minister.
Sonia and the NAC
-----------------
5. (C) Although the National Advisory Council (NAC) has attracted
considerable media attention, most agree that it is the least
significant of the three bodies Mrs. Gandhi chairs, and is most
notable for providing her with cabinet status. Sonia is said to be a
strong backer of the Common Minimum Program (CMP), drafted by the Left
parties and Congress after the 2004 electoral victory. She views the
CMP as a useful tool that will keep the United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) together. The UPA government established the NAC to ""interface
with civil society in the implementation of the CMP."" Its functions
are to:
--monitor implementation of the CMP;
--provide inputs for GOI policy formulation; and --support GOI
legislative business.
6. (C) Mrs. Gandhi's role as NAC Chairman provides her with Cabinet
rank and a ""secretariat"" with a complement of civil servants and
staff that report directly to her, as well as office space and a
travel budget. The NAC members consist of intellectuals, former civil
servants, and academics, including a number of heavyweights from
India's NGO community. NAC members are predominantly of a leftist
ideological bent and maintain cordial relations with the Communists.
Jairam Ramesh, who helped draft the CMP, is also a member, and has
played an active role in the two or three meetings held since its
creation. Members receive no compensation or government rank. Contacts
tell us that while Mrs. Gandhi nominally chairs the sessions, she
restricts her involvement to brief opening and closing statements.
7. (C) The NAC website provides access to papers drafted by the
members, but it has not issued a policy document or played a
significant role in policy formulation since its formation. Since the
NAC has been largely moribund, some political observers theorize that
Congress created it to provide Mrs. Gandhi with needed Cabinet rank
and infrastructure, to help convince the Communists that it was
serious about the CMP, to help burnish Mrs. Gandhi's image as a
""compassionate leader"" who cares about the poor, and to provide
entre for NGOs in the policy process.
Sonia and the UPA
-----------------
8. (C) There are three components that must be placated and balanced
to keep the UPA government in power: Congress, the Communist parties,
and the regional/caste parties. Sonia and the Congress leadership
complain about Communist obstruction, but are convinced that these
parties, although ideological, are not ""irresponsible."" In the eyes
of Congress leaders, most Communists are ""pragmatic,"" projecting an
image of looking after the poor and downtrodden, in order to mollify
the party faithful, while not preventing government from functioning.
9. (C) While many in the Congress inner circle have some affinity with
the Communists and work together with them on selected issues, they
view the regional satraps of the UPA allies with disdain, and prefer
to keep them at arm's length. The recent Congress fiasco in Bihar, for
example, convinced many in Congress that Bihar-based politicos Laloo
Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan are ""loose cannons"" who cannot be
trusted. Their disdain for these often rustic regional politicians has
prevented Congress from properly managing the UPA coalition. Because
of these engrained prejudices, Congress has been unable to focus on
the BJP as its principal adversary, and instead has become mired in
internecine squabbling.
10. (C) Mrs. Gandhi chairs the UPA Steering Committee, which is
supposed to provide a forum for UPA members to work out their
differences. It has met no more than six times in the almost 11 months
since the UPA came to power. Since the Communists support the UPA from
the outside, they are not members of this committee, and hold their
own meetings with Sonia and the Congress leadership on a weekly basis.
This suggests that the UPA Steering Committee is primarily intended to
coordinate policy between Congress and the regional/caste parties. One
of the most powerful regional parties, the Samajwadi Party (SP) of
Uttar Pradesh (UP) led by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, also
supports the UPA from outside and is not a member of the committee,
while another, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) does not support the UPA.
11. (C) According to our contacts, Mrs. Gandhi plays a similar role in
the Steering Committee meetings as she does in the NAC, sitting
silently through meetings without participating and leaving
substantive statements to Congress heavyweights. Congress Cabinet
ministers participate in these meetings on an ad hoc basis according
to the issues under discussion, and Sonia lets them present the party
position. These include, Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who does
not restrict himself to defense issues but also addresses economic
questions, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Foreign Minister Natwar Singh,
and Finance Minister Chidambaram, among others.
12. (C) Our contacts tell us that few tangible results have emerged
from these meetings, which are held largely for public consumption and
to demonstrate to the public that Congress is a responsible party
interested in ""coalition maintenance."" In reality, Sonia Gandhi and
the Congress leadership prefer to work most UPA management issues out
of the public eye,"" relying on phone calls and personal visits that
are not open to prying eyes and the media.
Congress and the Communists
---------------------------
13. (C) Several interlocutors claimed that the weekly meetings with
the Communists, also attended by Mrs. Gandhi, are more important than
the UPA Steering Committee meetings, as Congress has determined that
it will put forward no significant economic initiative without first
vetting it with the Communists, and attempting to gain their assent.
In addition to formal meetings, Mrs. Gandhi calls Left Front leaders
to her residence for ""breakfast"" on an ad hoc basis. The breakfasts
take place only when Sonia and her advisors deem that there is an
issue so pressing that it requires a conclave. Mrs. Gandhi expects the
meetings to be private and the press is not invited. However, in some
instances participants will brief journalists off the record about
what transpired. Congress leaders also routinely call their Communist
counterparts on the telephone to discuss a wide range of issues. It is
not clear whether Mrs. Gandhi personally telephones the Communist
leadership, or whether she leaves that to her subordinates.
Comment
-------
14. (C) As one of the world's oldest and largest political parties,
Congress has evolved an elaborate culture aimed at protecting the
Gandhi dynasty. Mrs. Gandhi's inner circle carefully controls her
access to information, and inoculates her from criticism, while her
carefully scripted public appearances protect her from making gaffes
or missteps. This has the advantage of preserving the ""sanctity"" of
Mrs. Gandhi and the dynasty, but can also complicate her efforts to
wield power. This system prevents Mrs. Gandhi from asserting herself
and reduces her charisma, and makes her overly reliant on a selected
group, which may not always have her or the party's best interests at
heart. She appears more comfortable working with the often high-caste
and well-educated Communists than with regional satraps of the
state-based parties, which suggests that the bumpy Congress/UPA
relationship is likely to continue.
MULFORD "
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