Sonia to return soon to steady fumbling Congress

New York: Sonia Gandhi who has tenaciously presided over the Congress Party for more than a decade is expected to return to India by 31 August, or the first week of September, at the very latest, according to party sources. In Gandhi’s absence, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has failed to propose a strong agenda that combats corruption and let anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare become a phenomenon. Thanks to the Hazare uproar, there is so much disgruntlement in the Congress Party that Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has been tasked with addressing a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party on Thursday to calm angry Congressmen. “Mrs Gandhi wants Mr Mukherjee who has excellent negotiating skills to bring people around,” a senior party leader who did not want to be identified, told Firstpost. “She has high expectations from him.” [caption id=“attachment_68524” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Sonia Gandhi is expected to return to India by 31 August, or the first week of September, at the very latest, according to party sources. B Mathur/Reuters”]  [/caption] Young MPs like Sandeep Dikshit, Priya Dutt, Sanjay Nirupam and Naveen Jindal have already criticised the government’s inept handling of Hazare’s fast. Rahul Gandhi who is standing in for his mother was appalled by Hazare’s arrest last week and counseled the prime minister to use kid gloves while dealing with the people’s man. Both Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram appear terrifyingly out of touch with Hazare’s ability to rally huge support across India. Some reports say the Gandhis prevailed on Singh on Tuesday to give a long rope to fasting Hazare by offering to hold talks. Singh also promised to refer Team Anna’s Jan Lokpal Bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee which is already examining the government’s anti-corruption bill. Singh’s letter to Hazare has a cadence of concession without giving anything big away: “In view of the concern repeatedly expressed by your team that the Jan Lokpal Bill version should be before Parliament, but more particularly and more importantly, in view of my deep and abiding concern for your health, our government is prepared to request the Speaker, Lok Sabha to formally refer the Jan Lokpal Bill also to the Standing Committee for their holistic consideration along with everything else.” The letter so far hasn’t softened Hazare, 74, who hasn’t eaten for nine days. Things are a mess for the government which has complaints coming from all directions. Foreign investors are watching as the threat of paralysis looms over Parliament. Critical policy reforms in the areas of deregulation and taxation have been delayed for the past year. Business leaders are frustrated over inaction on reforms on land acquisition, foreign direct investment in retail marketing and other issues. “The combination of government bumbling and a lack of regulatory progress has cast a cloud over business confidence,” Chetan Ahya, an economist with Morgan Stanley wrote in The Wall Street Journal, on Tuesday while cutting India’s growth estimate for the financial year ending March 2012 to 7.2 percent from 7.7 percent. Meanwhile, Congress Party headquarters in New Delhi has its sights set on Gandhi’s early return. “We are expecting her to be here in 7 to 10 days but the dates for her arrival are not written in stone as she will travel after her doctor’s okay,” a senior Congress leader told Firstpost. Congress officials have declined to confirm or deny that Gandhi has cancer, or is being treated in New York. Rumors that she has cervical cancer are unconfirmed. Even when she gets back to Delhi, it is perhaps unrealistic to expect Gandhi who heads the National Advisory Council, which advises the government on policy, to chair long meetings while she recovers from cancer radiation therapy. Despite India’s raucous political culture, Gandhi’s health has elicited stony silence from the government. The Indian embassy in Washington and the New York Consulate are loath to talk about Gandhi’s illness, knowing the Gandhi family’s obsession with privacy. Congress officials have released only the basic facts that she has undergone “successful” surgery, has been released from intensive care and should return to India in a few weeks.