After the May poll rout, the BJP leader had personally apologised to Singh for the slight. And throughout May and June, 2009, media had tom-tomed the final arrival of a powerful, self-assertive PM at the helm of the UPA coalition. But contrary to such pious hopes, what we had really witnessed has been a reverse process.

The last six months have witnessed a gradual tightening of the party hold on the UPA government. The process has been too subtle and appears in mild doses. Yet it is loud and clear for those familiar with the Sonia-style political management. There have been so many instances, most of them unnoticed, which together are metamorphosing into a different kind of party-government equation. Before going into the details, let us not overlook the one big sub-text: the Congress establishment hence forth will not brook the emergence of another 2008-like crisis in which the party found itself helplessly tailing its own government. Instead, it will do every thing to prevent things going out of control.

The UPA government's decisive showdown in July 2008 was generally seen as a political confrontation with the Left on the issue of India-US nuclear deal. Its other remarkable side effects remained mostly unnoticed. It had marked the emergence of a really strong and powerful super PM who could dictate terms to the obstructive Left, hoodwink the recalcitrant allies like Lalu Yadav and Sharad Pawar and force his own party bosses to fall in line with him. The PM had almost single-handedly resisted all pressures to yield to the Left threats and thus save the government. The crisis was even depicted as an issue involving the PM's personal prestige.

Just one fact will illustrate how powerful - in spite of the opposition's 'weak PM' mantra - the Prime Minister of UPA1 was. He ranks among those few who had risked the very survival of their governments for the sake of principles. V.P. Singh could have compromised on the arrest of L.K. Advani and OBC reservation and got another lease of life. I.K. Gujral had the choice of ousting the DMK from government to appease the Congress that had falsely alleged a sinister role for the southern party in Rajiv assassination. Manmohan Singh too had taken a similar kind of risk to uphold his most prestigious project.

Most of us view the July 22, 2008 episode as a triumph for those who wanted to end India 's nuclear isolation. The crisis may have had a happy ending with the Marxists getting badly mauled in their strongholds. But for the Congress establishment, it has left some bad memories. This has been the theme of a rare revelation to this writer by a usually reserved party insider. True to Sonia style, such delicate issues are never debated at formal party forums. But the party still remains deeply disturbed over its failure to make course corrections before the July crisis went to the absurd lengths of being a 'PM vs. Karat' confrontation.

The Congress party, the engine of real power, was left with no say but to sink or swim with its Prime Minister. Therefore, since the May 2009 victory, the party's primary concern has been to check personality-centered governance. There will be no question of the party giving a free hand to the government it has hoisted. Whenever the government goes astray, the Congress party will not hesitate to put its foot down. For long, the party had functioned as a pious facilitator to the UPA1. It is no more so under UPA2. Earlier interventions were in private and at a personal level whereas under UPS2 the party is resorting to open admonitions. That has been the difference.

Watch the way the party kept the PM in suspense for days together after the disastrous India-Pak joint statement. On Baluchistan remarks, the party spokesman had given him sleepless nights by publicly refusing to endorse the government's position. Such clear rebuffs were reiterated by the party chief at the subsequent parliamentary party meeting. This one episode was enough for all those in government or its admirers outside to see where the real power lay. Under UPA1, government had reversed policies on Left threats or opposition protests. Now the Congress' own course correction is direct and often blunt.

The Congress establishment's sharp reaction to the steep and steady increases in prices of consumer items, especially food items, was interpreted by media as an attack on UPA ally Sharad Pawar. This is only partial truth. A closer look at the way Janardan Dwivedi has explained it, showed the criticism was equally targeted at the PM and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. The government is now under pressure to review some of its pet reform measures like futures trading and permission for foreign firms to buy food grain at farms. This week, the food prices have crossed the 17 per cent rise.

The intervention on sugar ordinance has been another telling case. It all began with a sudden central ordinance giving the powers of fixing sugarcane prices to the Centre (it was fixed at Rs. 130 against a market price of Rs. 200 per quintal). In case state governments wanted to help sugar farmers, the former will have to pay the difference to the farmers, not the mills. Opposition saw a 'conspiracy' by the market reformers in PMO to protect the interests of the mills and putting burden on state governments. When the farmers' ire spread, party asked Mukherjee to resolve the crisis. Rahul Gandhi himself met PM asking him to drop this liberalisation measure.

Extreme caution and averting confrontations on popular issues are Sonia establishment's watchword. The party had promptly intervened on many occasions when Kapil Sibal wanted to finish the entire educational reform in 100 days. Now the party is keen on better screening of the pending controversial bills in Parliament. Under Mamata's pressure, the Home Minister sent a central team to West Bengal. When opposition raised united protests, the whole move was suddenly diluted and Chidambaram made a bold statement on no use of Article 356 - again, on right signals from the establishment. The first sign of the party's assertion of its pre-eminence had come when it rejected the global moves to make Montek Singh Ahluwalia finance minister. Clearly, days when a set of experts could push pre-set agendas are over. (IPA Service)