Is Sonia the new Iron Lady?

If hold over Congress and country is the yard stick, she is. Italian origin and accented Hindi notwithstanding

If hold over Congress and country is the yard stick, she is. Italian origin and accented Hindi notwithstanding

Before Indira became India, she was dubbed 'gungi gudiya'. And that wasn't the only slur on her political acumen when she became prime minister of the country in 1966. It took Indira Gandhi just five years to emerge as one of India's most powerful prime ministers, the "only man in her cabinet", and silence cynics.

In much the same way, her daughter-in-law was dismissed by veteran communist Jyoti Basu as a housewife when she reluctantly stepped into politics.

Indeed, after Sonia Maino, raised in a working class Roman Catholic household in Orbassano, just outside Turin in Italy, married Rajiv Gandhi, son ofu00a0 India's 'first lady', in 1968, she became the obedient daughter-in-law, in charge of running the household. Till fate and factionalism forced her to take charge of Congress affairs. And turn around the party's fortunes.

This is where the similarities end. Indira and Sonia came to politics for different reasons, Indira grew up around politics, Sonia was far removed from it. Journalist Inder Malhotra, who published her biography, says Indira understood the importance of power and how to manipulate it better than most politicians.

Sonia, on the other hand, gave up power (read the prime minister's chair) following her inner voice.

Indira was eloquent, Sonia after all these years still needs speech writers. Indira was aggressive, arrogant even, while Sonia, as one political watcher put it, appeals to the "constituency of sobriety".u00a0

But as the Grand Old Party masters the art of coalition dharma and wins election after election, as Rahul emerges as the Next Big Thing in Indian politics, as identity politics faces a threat, there is a media-shy lady in 10 Janpath who smiles a quiet smile.

As Mani Shankar Aiyar told CNN.com after Sonia declined the PM's chair: "She is the queen. She is appointing a regent to run some of the business of government for her. But it is she who will be in charge and who will continue to direct the fortunes of the Congress Party."

And in that, Sonia is Indira.u00a0The new Iron Lady.

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