In July 1969 she had nationalized 20 major banks to generate an impression of taking away wealth of the rich and her move to abolish privy purses were viewed as a slap to old oppressors. The two measures made her in eye of the deprived classes a strong woman of Indian stock. From 1967 she was considered to be a weak woman. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia had sarcastically named her a dumb doll. She was confronted by powerful leaders of four parties coalition may have contributed to her getting sympathies though most concluded later that her promise to end poverty contributed to votes by poor. She had not promised but referred to profound need of abolition of poverty.

Her unprecedented win over the mighty male politicians did affect her handling of her party by converting the structure from internal democracy laced to a nominated one. Her fight with old guard was essentially reflection of her sense of insecurity. She did not want a challenge to her in future. She acquired authority of putting weak and unable individuals in power structure. Even imposition of emergency and putting opponents in detention to eliminate possibility of challenge to her position did not earn her support. In 1977 the electorate in 338 seats in nineteen states rejected her but the electorate in 152 of 204 seats in six states approved her candidates. No logical explanation is so far provided to this strange pattern.

She had converted her party to be of individuals without self respect, seeking posts in power structure but without popular support unless they held her hand. She had turned her party to be paraphernalia of obedient but weak characters. Their habit to stand before her with folded hands in hope of getting an office even after being kicked was the converted character that generally embellishes the dictator’s edifices. It has not changed as their hovering around the family indicates.

After assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, the party degenerated to a new low. The depth to which it degenerated is indicated by the fact that Sonia Gandhi, a person whose comprehension of politics, her understanding of economic laws, or social norms were not even known, was offered the mantle of the party after assassination of her husband, finally in 1997. This is how she entered politics.

The Congress had a taste of power under her leadership it in 2004 after the party formed the coalition government. She nominated the former minister Man Mohan Singh to occupy the seat of the Prime Minister without transferring the real powers. Her decisions emanated from her belief, her subconscious. For her India was merely a serfdom of her family.

Her ignorance or innocence of operations of power structure and economic aspirations, social needs was reflected in her demand for a National Advisory Council under her. She and her council members were not even aware of the dramatic social transformation as a consequence to the changes that the Narsimha Rao was compelled to introduce. Number of school attending children grew phenomenally from less than 60 per cent to 96 percent in 2013. The birth rate and death rate came down dramatically with larger number of poor also adopting small family norm. The changes indicated that dignity of life had become essential and not meal as the main objective of life. Even an comprehending glance at the failures of offers of free lunch and cheap services to entice voters since 1977 elections would have refrained her from insisting on acceptance of food security scheme. The newly formed Janata Party had, without offering freebies, defeated Indira Gandhi still laced with emergency powers. She made a dramatic return to power corridors in 27 months of her crushing defeat. Her son had also no made such promises in 1984 or VP Singh in 1989 elections. Even corruption could not become an issue though the Congress was gradually reduced to be irrelevance as a political entity.

Sonia Gandhi had not stepped in political arena in 1991 but she accepted to head the party in October 1998 and met with the political disaster in 1999 election. She continued to hold the party even after she was forced to give up the national party status in 2002 to be a secondary political entity to the state political formations representing aspirations of dominant castes or class specific to the state.

Her Advisory Council evolved two schemes in ten years. Both were essentially schemes that lacked ability to contribute even a rupee worth to national wealth but were to consume huge sums of national resource as a charity each year. She was not even aware that her two schemes were to consume one fourth of funds needed for planned development. The big landlords of the ancient era had sated their ego on huge charity boasts. Sonia Gandhi forgot that she was in 21st century and not in 11th century. In spite of promise of huge charity worth Rs. 1.95 lakh crore through two schemes, she lost the election to Narendra Modi in 2014 and confirmed her ignorance of dramatic social transformation of Indian society.

Narendra Modi was still enveloped in thick layer of allegation of his communal biases, not much known outside, had made it abundantly clear not to expect free food in his regime and yet soundly defeated Sonia Gandhi by leaving only 44 seats for her. She could not be even an official opposition party. NaMo had nothing as achievement on his credit side, his main opponent Rahul Gandhi had offered Rs.3.20 lakh crore and yet lost in 2019 as the charity offers were no more relevant in India. The family cannot think of ideas that can make their need relevant to Indians. This is 21st century, Ordinary citizens prefer dignity of life and not charity of landlords.