Did Sonia Gandhi trespass into uncharted territory of the PMO?

Already battered by the rising popularity of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the debate on who had the final word in the UPA — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Congress president Sonia Gandhi — could not have come at a worse time for the Congress party. Two books, one by Singh’s former media adviser Sanjaya Baru and another by former coal secretary PC Parakh, criticise the Congress party and the prime minister for undermining the institution of the PMO. While Parakh deals particularly with how transparency was compromised in allocating coal blocks leading to the coal scam, Baru’s book focusses on how the prime minister played a subservient role to his political boss ignoring the sanctity of his chair. [caption id=“attachment_1480083” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Rift or consultation? Image courtesy PIB[/caption] “The new books confirm what was already known to everyone. Except for the India-US Nuclear Deal and FDI in retail, in all other decisions the prime minister was subordinate to somebody else. This in fact is against the spirit of the very oath that the prime minister takes before assuming office. We have the wrong power centre. We have not gone in the true spirit of the parliamentary system. Had we got good governance this would not have happened,” former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian told CNN-IBN during a panel discussion. A part of the oath to office of the prime minister is worded thus: “… I will not directly or indirectly communicate or reveal to any person or persons any matter which shall be brought under my consideration or shall become known to me as prime minister for the Union except as may be required for the due discharge of my duties as such Minister.” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who participated in the discussion, found the timing of the release of the two books suspect. He said they were mere confabulations without substance. He doubted the motive of the book as the former media adviser has come out with the book after eight years he left office. “No files ever travelled in the manner that Baru described. The book has a political and commercial motive. Eighty percent of Baru’s book is subjective opinion. Facts are few. He is opining on matters where a press adviser had no authority. But this is a free country. You cannot stop everyone from writing what they want to. The timing of release is always suspect. But each and every charge has been officially responded to by the PMO,” Singhvi said. The Congress leader also asserted that what the prime minister did was a process of consultation as per the requirement of a coalition government and not mere obedience. “The prime minister in 2004 already announced the mandate was for Sonia Gandhi. It is quite commonplace that while the prime minister retains his individual prerogative he holds close consultations among allies and the principal party of the alliance. Close consultation process does not mean ceding authority,” he said. BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman did not accept that the release of the books has anything to do with the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. “It is an issue of national interest. There cannot be a time for it which is suitable to the Congress party. It is a fact that the prime minister did not accept the suggestion (on allocation of coal blocks by PC Parakh) that it should become transparent. He even refused to take briefing even from the intelligence on Siachen. That was not coalition compulsion. The serialised corruption during the UPA tenure harmonised the relationship between the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi,” said Sitharaman. As expected, the Congress was quick to defend the prime minister and the party chief. “The prime minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s excessively harmonious relationship could not be digested by the BJP. It is sad that the BJP is on the clutches of Baru’s book. India’s biggest remote control is the one from Nagpur. (Attack on BJP that it is controlled by the Nagpur headquartered RSS),” Singhvi said. The BJP spokesperson immediately responded. “The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh never intervenes into BJP decisions,” said Sitharaman. However, another participant at the discussion, Editorial director of the The New Indian Express Prabhu Chawla found Baru’s book to be rehashed old material with nothing new. He even indicated that the author was hypocritical. “I called the Manmohan Singh an accidental prime minister in 2004. When that happened Baru in his capacity as media adviser to the prime minister shot off a letter calling the rift between Singh and Gandhi as fiction. Today he is claiming that there was a rift after eight years,” Chawla said.