Sonia Gandhi

Retirement Gambit

Jayanta Ghosal

Time to take political sanyas

Ahmed Patel (1949-2020): Power Behind the Power

Patel was a lone ranger in a party known for its groupism. With his death, Sonia Gandhi has lost the golden bridge linking her family to the party. And it can get very lonely up there in a castle of melting wax

Happy Birthday, Mr Prime Minister

Makarand R Paranjape

The seclusion of a great leader is the inevitable outcome of the sensitivity of his office

Pranab Mukherjee (1935-2020)

MJ Akbar

He understood that democratic politics is algebra, where various parts of the electoral equation are held together by governance, not deposits in vote banks

Enter the Unregistered Opposition

PR Ramesh and Siddharth Singh

As the Congress vacates the space of an active opposition with a counter-argument, civil society activists and other professional dissenters rush in to fill the vacuum

Crisis and the Congress

Sudeep Paul

Rebels in the ranks

Gandhis Win, Congress Loses

Harish Khare

Sonia and Rahul Gandhi can have the satisfaction of a Pyrrhic victory. The party has formally reaffirmed their leadership, but it is seen as completely out of sync with the times

Prashant Bhusan: The Unforgiven

Jayanta Ghosal

Bhushan had played a big part in exposing the coal and 2G scams

Tradition and Morbidity

S Prasannarajan

Rebels for a day, and virtual renegades in a schmaltzy spectacle of piety and panegyrics in the next day’s headlines, the dissenting Congress leaders retreated without the humiliation of a recantation. Some mercy.