Far from responding to it in a democratic manner by allowing a discussion on it, a majority of the CWC members saw it as a golden opportunity to prove their servility to the party chief. If their shameful conduct is anything to go by, it would not be a surprise if an urgent meeting of the CWC is held to take action against A.K. Antony, Jitendra Prasad and Sitaram Kesri for pleading for leniency towards the threesome.

It also raises doubts about the very relevance ofthe CWC, which is the highest decision-making body of the Congress, if it cannot debate an issue that concerns the future of the party. It is difficult even to imagine that it was this very party that witnessed such classic clashes as between the socialists and the conservatives, Netaji Bose and Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru and Sardar Patel and Indira Gandhi and Nijalingappa. This is one signal contribution of Sonia Gandhi to the unmaking of the Congress.

Even as the CWC poses itself as an unmerciful body that will not tolerate even a slight departure from what is politically convenient to its president, its members actually deserve sympathy for the state to which they have been reduced.

They seem to have lost even their capacity to think independently and take a cogent view. Instead, the orchestrated attempt, to which they are willy-nilly a party, has been to whip up public sympathy for Sonia Gandhi and thereby deflect the issues Shard Pawar and company have raised. Her dramatic resignation might haveserved such a purpose for the time being but to believe that the `foreigner' issue has been put on the back burner is not to know the dynamics of Indian politics, particularly the electoral. Had Sonia Gandhi been a responsible political leader, she would have addressed the issue, rather than run away from the battle field.

It is quite apparent that Sharad Pawar had made up his mind to leave the party and he had used the `foreigner' issue only as a ruse. Nonetheless, it will be his, as indeed the BJP's, main electoral plank in the coming elections. The Congress will have to answer the question whether Sonia Gandhi will be its prime ministerial candidate. If she will indeed be, a whole lot of questions regarding the duality of her citizenship, the date on which she became a citizen and why she took long to renounce her Italian citizenship will have to be answered.

There is no way the party can evade these questions as the campaign will pick up momentum. Any number of partymen are welcome to submit theirfarcical resignation letters and create grotesque scenes in the back lane of her residence but they are no reply to the letter written by the three leaders. In any case, sympathy is an overused card for the Congress party as Sonia Gandhi is bound to realise sooner than later.