Sonia Gandhi's Communication Style: Najma Heptulla's Disappointment Over 'Madam Is Busy' Call from Berlin
She talks of the high moment in her new autobiography, In Pursuit of Democracy: Beyond Party Lines. Her talk relates a tale about her own attempt to reach out to the Congress leader from Berlin that made her disheartened, having gone down in history as the first Indian Muslim woman elected president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) way back in 1999.
After the historic victory, Heptulla called Sonia Gandhi to inform her of the news. She was told by staff, "Madam is busy." An hour had passed since she had informed them that she was calling from Berlin, and she received no response. Heptulla laments that this was the first time that the culture of Congress changed. She also mentions that her experience aptly embodied the party's shift in changing from open and communicative to a hierarchical, more restrictive model where party workers have little access to the leader.
According to Heptulla, this incident is a classic example of the emerging disconnect between Congress' leadership and its rank-and-file members. While the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee immediately picked up her call and expressed genuine happiness over her achievement, the refusal of Sonia Gandhi to engage left Heptulla feeling isolated.
Heptulla contrasts this experience with the leadership of Indira Gandhi, Sonia's mother-in-law, who was known for keeping an open-door policy. She argues that under Sonia Gandhi's leadership, access to the party leader was increasingly controlled by junior functionaries, cutting off meaningful communication. This shift, Heptulla believes, contributed to the decline of Congress' organizational health and effectiveness.
Sonia Gandhi’s leadership style, as Heptulla describes it, marked a “sharp and serious departure from earlier Congress culture,” further distancing the party from its grassroots members. Heptulla also reflects on how the party’s leadership evolved, with family members like Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi increasingly distanced from the political process during this period.
Heptulla's experience tells of an important juncture in Indian politics, where communications within Congress became increasingly centralized and less involving. That moment, she recounts, ushered in a shift for the party-the one that would culminate in a crisis of leadership and direction.
This is not to say that while the complexities of Congress' internal dynamics would be clarified as a result of Heptulla's autobiography, Sonia Gandhi's leadership would be quite elucidated in the altering landscape of Indian politics.
