The Role of Sonia Gandhi in India

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/soutikbiswas/2010/09/sonia_gandhis_challenge.html

http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/g/sonia_gandhi/index.html

Sonia Gandhi plays a huge role in the India’s current political system. As leader of the Grand Old Party and a well know figure to politics, largely in part to her marriage and lineage, she stands as a figurehead to the party and the symbol of a dynasty. Her motivations however are discouraging. While she has power among the party, she fails to implement promised changes and make decisions on public issues. Many doubt her enthusiasm for politics due to her apparent lack of ambition and previous opinions that about her husband should not become the Prime Minister as he did despite her request. People are starving while purchased food products go to waste before they can be distributed to those in need.

These articles showed the frustration of the Indian public to find a leader who has genuine intentions to change current issues. In reading this article I also became curious about the structure of political hierarchies in India. It was continuously hinted at in the article that Ms. Gandhi was simply there because of her husband’s involvement in politics. I wanted to know whether this was because of a lineage concept, or whether she was elected head of the party in hopes that she would have as compelling motivations to change the current circumstances as her husband. I read two articles because I was hoping to gain a well rounded perspective about her role in politics. Both concluded though saying that what Sonia Gandhi is doing now is either very little of not making the impact that what she was doing was not enough. I would enjoy looking further into this and seeing whether the problem is her leadership or the resources available.