The rise of Sonia Gandhi

She is at the helm of one of the biggest country in the world by sheer chance. A classic example of how the most ordinary person can go places if lady luck favours.

Sonia's stroke of good luck started when she met Rajiv Gandhi, fell in love and then married him. I am sure she had no great ambitions except to live a happy life with the man she had married.

But destiny had other plans for her. She had married into one of the most powerful families in India, the Nehru/Gandhi family. In India dynasties rule, whether in films or politics. Despite its founding fathers declaring it to be a republic, people love dynasties. A hangover of the past perhaps?

After Sonia married Rajiv, the elder son of the Prime Minsiter, Indira Gandhi there was little chance that Rajiv would come into politics. He was a commercial pilot and he was happy being that. His younger brother, Sanjay Gandhi was the politically ambitious one and was widely believed to succeed his mother.

But a plane crash in 1980 changed all that. Sanjay Gandhi died in that. A distraught mother wanted her second son to help her. Rajiv joined politics. Sonia hated that and kept away from public gaze. She was a private person and was happy being the loyal wife.

But Rajiv's assassination by the LTTE in 1991 changed things. Destiny was pushing an unambitious woman to lead her adopted nation.

After Rajiv, the Congress party was helm less. It had always depended on the Gandhi dynasty for its leadership. It had no other options. No other Congress leader was acceptable to the other top leaders. They all had prime ministerial ambitions and would pull down anyone to tried to clamber onto the top chair. This has been the bane of the party. It is steeped in dynastic traditions.

Sonia Gandhi took full advantage of this weakness of the party. After the Machiavellian Narasimha Rao was thrown out by the party, Sonia took charge. It was a tough ask. She could not speak Hindi. Her English had a strong Italian accent. But Sonia persisted.

Her chance came when the BJP made a mess of things and was voted out in 2004. Sonia wisely did not become prime minister but made Manmohan Singh the PM, a man with no mass base in the party. All this while Rahul is being groomed for the top chair. Manmohan Singh is keeping the chair warm till Rahul 'grows up'.

This could have happened only in India!