Welcome back, Sonia. Do you feel the difference in the air?

Dear Mrs Gandhi

I trust that you’ve sufficiently recovered from whatever medical condition it was that took you away at short notice – about which neither the party that you head nor the government that you command by proxy offered more than a modicum of information.

Once you touch down in Delhi, you will probably slip back into the cocoon of security and the bubble of comfort that your party and your government have laid out for you. That would be a pity. Because if you cared to step outside that comfort zone (to the extent that your health permits, of course), you will find that the India you return to is in many ways vastly different from the India that you left seeking urgent medical attention.

It’s an India that is seething with rage, an India where a silent revolution is under way. It’s a revolution that has ominous political consequences for your government and for your party, but that message does not appear to have reached either of those two entities.

Quite simply, millions of people across India are fed up of the monumental corruption that has happened under your government’s watch in recent years, and of the venal lies and foot-dragging that your government and your party are guilty of.

They are tired of the diversionary tactics adopted by your government in order to stall what started as a small movement for a strong Lokpal Bill in April. As someone who was in the thick of things then, and likely steered the government and policy responses during that period, you will have got a sense of the national mood then – and the anger directed at your government (and in a larger sense against the entire political establishment).

Well, in your absence, that sense of anger directed at your government has multiplied many times over.

It’s possible that even when you were away, your political handlers were giving you daily briefings on the events that transpired in your absence. But if I know them, their inputs were likely shaped by their personal and political biases, and perhaps a sense of what you would like to hear.

They very likely told you that the Anna Hazare movement against corruption, which hogged much of the media headlines over the past three weeks, has now been effectively been sideswiped. After first bungling by arresting Anna and jailing him in Tihar – the very same prison where at least two ministes from your government are counting bars – the government was forced to backtrack and allow Team Anna to go ahead with his hunger strike to demand a strong Jan Lokpal Bill.

Your party minions may also have told you while the size of the crowds that gathered at the Ramlila Maidan may have seemed substantial, they don’t count for much. Because when it comes to election time, we can always slice and dice the Indian electorate along caste and communal lines, and play the politics of identity – and divert attention away from the core message of the movement against corruption.

But in fact, they are wrong. As was demonstrated even during the 13 days that Anna was fasting, attempts by Dalit and Muslim leaders to muddy the waters met with resounding failure. Ignoring calls to boycott the Anna-led campaign, people from across the social spectrum turned up to express solidarity with the movement. Police officers who were deputed by the Delhi government to the Ramlila grounds to maintain security would, once their official duty for the day was over, slip into plain clothes and join the protestors. Even normally apolitical groups of people – like the _dabbawala_s of Mumbai, who have never taken a day off in 120 years, and commercial sex workers in Kolkata – came out on the streets in protest.

That’s the India you are returning to. The crowds may have dispersed from Ramlila Maidan, and the daily shows of support in cities across India may no longer be grabbing media headlines, but it is folly for you and for your government to imagine that the mood of the moment has passed.

India has been awakened in your absence, and the aam aadmi are not going back to sleep. Even now, they are keeping a close watch on how your government manages the process of getting the Lokpal Bill passed. From the manner in which the government has gone after Team Anna’s core members on frivolous charges, it doesn’t look like the government has learnt its lesson.

But the aam aadmi that your party has reduced to a political slogan has turned against you. They are standing by to deliver the people’s verdict on your government’s monumental corruption – and its maladroit attempts to stall a popular movement against corruption.

This is in many ways a significant moment in India’s political history – and as the presiding deity of this government and the Congress, you have a front-row seat.

But do fasten your seat-belt. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

An Indian