When asked if a cabinet reshuffle was in the offing, she said, “You should have asked the prime minister about it.”
Sonia did not deliver a speech, instead she took questions from HT’s Advisory Editorial Director Vir Sanghvi and subsequently, from the audience. Topics ranged from Rahul Gandhi’s induction as general secretary, the nuclear deal, mid-term polls, her assessment of the government’s performance, her entry into politics, the office-of-profit controversy and Pratibha Patil’s election as president.
An appreciative audience relished the candid responses as Sonia reacted, clarified or expounded — on several subjects for the first time — with Sanghvi setting the ball rolling with questions that brought out her persona and style of functioning.
Depending on the issue, she turns for advice to the Congress Working Committee, her senior aides and younger MPs, Sonia said. But it’s her son Rahul, daughter Priyanka and son-in-law Robert Vadra whom she consults on “personal matters” — like quitting the Lok Sabha to spare the government the “embarrassment” caused by the “serious oversight” of not exempting the National Advisory Council as an office of profit. She said she chose to renew her mandate because she did not want an ordinance just to bail her out.
On her comments at Jhajjar, Haryana, Sonia said they were not aimed at the Left. “I know everyone would want me to say that it was an attack on the Left. But I am going to disappoint them. I was talking of the opposition to our government in Haryana,” she said.
“We (the UPA and the Left) are working in a coalition. If I have to say something, the last thing I would do is to publicly go out and shout that I don’t agree. I will call them and express my reservation… and give them an opportunity to freely express their views,” she said. The prime minister does the same, she added.
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