It is generally accepted in India and abroad that, in the changed political landscape of India, Sonia Gandhi is the power behind the scenes. She is the convener of the ruling multiparty alliance. Her son Rahul Gandhi, a new member of Parliament from the "family" seat of Amethi in northern India (which his father Rajiv Gandhi represented) has been chosen as a general secretary of the Congress Party.
The Nehru-Gandhi family is back on the throne in the Delhi Durbar. Motilal Nehru joined the Congress Party in the early years of India's struggle for independence. His son Jawaharlal led the country to independence and delivered one of the truly great speeches of all times -- on par with Lincoln's Gettysburg address -- on the fateful day of Aug. 15, 1947: At the stroke of midnight, when the world sleeps, he said solemnly yet joyously, India awakens to freedom. India had made a tryst with destiny, and the time had come to redeem the pledge.
Destiny has now embraced an Italian-born Roman Catholic as her own. The party of independence passed the mantle of the family legacy of leadership to Sonia Gandhi, who today stands as the symbol and guardian of the constitutional values of the world's biggest and most exciting democracy.