A month ago when newspersons sought to confirm the rumour that Sonia Gandhi had joined the Congress, V.N. Gadgil denied it vehemently. Sonia's secretary, V. George, remarked dismissively: ``Why should she become a member?'' Now it turns out that Sonia had signed her membership form for the Delhi Congress on March 21, and even Sitaram Kesri was in the dark. Logically, Sonia, with her Amethi links, should have become a member from Uttar Pradesh like others in the Gandhi family. But enrolment of Congress membership ended on February 28 in most states, Delhi being an exception. Was there something which happened between February 28 and March 21 which influenced Sonia's decision?

If Sonia takes charge, Kesri would become irrelevant. Already, the Congress president's friends have changed their tune and are talking in terms of making ``Kesriji'' not the Prime Minister but the President of India. Some see Sonia's formal entry into politics as part of a grand conspiracy of the UF and Congress to come together and dump the Left parties. But, in fact, the UF is as surprised as anyone else.

From now on, for the I.K. Gujral Government to survive, it is more important to please Sonia rather than Kesri. Though the normally cool Sonia smiled charmingly at Gujral during his swearing-in ceremony, the last close encounter between the two was probably back in 1976, when Sonia was in the Soviet Union accompanying her mother-in-law on an official visit and Gujral was the ambassador. At that time, Sonia had taken a fancy to a traditional silver belt in one of the museums and Gujral had hinted to the Russians that it would be an ideal gift for Mrs Gandhi's bahu.

Who is Minister?

THE Janata Dal's home-spun MP from Bihar, Bhagawati Devi, decided that the steps of Parliament House were the best place to stage her dharna. So she squatted there for days surrounded by placards reading ``Maneka Gandhi hosh mein aao (Maneka come to your senses)''.

When Maneka turned up in Parliament, she was accosted by indignant members, including the new Environment Minister, Saifuddin Soz, demanding to know why she was harassing Bhagawati Devi. (Bhagawati belongs to the Baheliya tribe, which traditionally traps birds for a livelihood and which recently has been facing a crackdown from wildlife wardens.) Soz and other MPs were taken aback when informed that it was Soz's own Environment Ministry which was responsible for challaning the Baheliyas, not her!

Leaky Office

THE publicity hungry Tiger Joginder Singh boasts that no correspondent leaves his office empty-handed. There is some document or nugget of information for any journalist who visits. Small wonder then that when Prime Minister Gujral finally met the CBI chief last week, it was to tick him off for leaking charge-sheets and confidential information left, right and centre. The PM's admonition, however, was of no avail.

Two days later in Jaipur, Singh was publicly announcing plans for filing the Bofors charge-sheet. Singh's brazenness stems from the knowledge that Gujral plans to dump him the moment the fodder scam charge-sheet is presented to the Bihar Governor. The Tiger's formula for survival is to keep announcing new plans for filing important charge-sheets, so that if he is removed, he can protest that he was the victim of a political witch-hunt.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.