'The couple at odds'
Growing disharmony clouds Sonia, Manmohan's future ties
AFP, New Delhi
Amid celebrations feting the first anniversary of the political union between India's ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and Premier Manmohan Singh, reports of growing disharmony cloud their future. This has touched off fevered speculation among pundits and the opposition about who's really running the nation. Is it Sonia who turned down the job of prime minister's job after leading Congress to a surprise election victory? Or is it the soft-spoken technocrat-turned-politician Singh who she nominated for the post? "Sonia is the tail that wags the government," India's leading news magazine, India Today, said in an editorial. "The Odd Couple," as they were dubbed when Congress took power, have become "The Couple at Odds," the magazine said. The opposition Hindu nationalists have painted Singh as a "puppet" of Gandhi, who was unanimously re-elected Congress president last weekend amid much fanfare. Normally in Indian politics, the prime minister is also president of the ruling party. But Gandhi, who brought the party back from the wilderness when she defeated the Hindu nationalists, decided to turn down the job while remaining head of the party and the Congress-led coalition. She tapped staunch family loyalist Singh for the role of prime minister. Singh is known as the architect of India's economic reforms in an earlier stint as finance minister and commands wide respect as a man of impeccable honesty.
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