US embassy cable - 05NEWDELHI2602

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