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this is recalled to make two points. First, the Congress has no
experience of doing without a supreme leader. As such, it cannot be
easy for it to make the transition to what, in the communist jargon
popular in India, has come to be known as collective leadership. The
psychology of dependence explains the pressure on Sonia Gandhi to
assume leadership of the party, her lack of experience,
well-advertised distaste for politics and her Italian origins
notwithstanding. The party will be in trouble whether she heeds, or
does not heed, the call.
Secondly, the primacy of the
leadership principle in the Congress has been an important factor in
assuring for it the support of the minorities and the weakest
sections of the Hindu society. For, only a leader in a position to
place himself or herself above the organization can be attractive to
them because the organization must otherwise mirror intra-Hindu
conflicts as well as broad Hindu aspiration.
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