"That's how the CP works", Ahmed Bhai told me when I complained, recalls Sanjay Nirupam

I had developed major differences with the Shiv Sena and decided to quit and join the Congress. I called on late Ahmed Patel, who was the political advisor of Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi. He was receptive but said, ‘let me speak to CP’. CP stood for Congress President. Leaders in the Congress party call her CP respectfully and fondly.

I’d never met Mrs Gandhi and had no way of anticipating her reaction to my willingness to join the party. Ahmed Bhai reverted to me after a week. He said, “Mrs Gandhi doesn’t have any objection. But she has asked me to speak to four leaders from Maharashtra Congress and take their consent.”

“Who are these four leaders?” I asked. He listed them out - Vilasrao Deshmukh, then Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Prabha Rau, the then Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee President, Gurudas Kamath, the then Mumbai Congress President and Sunil Dutt, against whom I had contested Lok Sabha election in 2004 and lost narrowly.

This procedure seemed clumsy to me. I asked Ahmed Bhai, “I am willing to join Congress and the party President doesn’t have any objection, then why this exercise?” “That’s how CP works,” replied Ahmed Bhai.

Over time I realized that she is a democrat at heart and she believes in creating a broader consensus before taking any decision. Nobody in the party has the courage to defy her. But, since she is a hardcore democrat, she prefers to hear the views of party leaders before taking any decision, big or small.

Meanwhile, my relationship with Shiv Sena got more strained and I finally decided to resign from the Rajya Sabha and the party. But nothing had yet been finalised about my joining the Congress party. After the resignation, I got into a huge controversy. Some leaders in Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started working to scuttle my plan to join the Congress party. It was put on hold for almost two months.

That was when Janardhan Dwivedi, General Secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC) took me to 10 Janpath to meet Mrs Sonia Gandhi. She was kind enough to give me a patient hearing despite all the controversy surrounding me. That meeting went on for more than half an hour. She listened to me with rapt attention. - This is another great quality in her leadership style. She is a great listener. Giving a patient hearing to people is a great human quality. But for a successful leader, it is a must and Mrs. Gandhi possesses this trait in abundance.

Congress leaders from various states seek appointment to discuss their issues with her. She meets them either at 10 Janpath or the Congress parliamentary party office at Parliament House. She gives ample time to each visitor to express his/her views or perspective. She hears them out patiently. Usually, she notes down important points from the conversation and passes them to the person concerned for further action. She has always come across as very sincere and action-oriented.

In the Lok Sabha also, I have seen her listening attentively to MPs’ speeches. I remember one such incident. Shiv Sena member, Anant Geete was raising the issue of Mumbai’s fishermen community who were being denied the status of Scheduled Tribe (ST), while the same community living in the hilly terrains of Thane district was classified there as ST. This was gross injustice to the fisherfolk living along the coast. Why this discrimination when they both belonged to the same community? - Geete made his point convincingly.

Having listened to his speech carefully, Mrs. Gandhi called me and other MPs from Maharashtra present in the House at the time and discussed the issue with us, took notes and forwarded her views to the government of Maharashtra and the minister concerned at the Centre. Such was her keen observation and quick action.

I remember one more incident involving the fishing community from Mumbai. Fishermen and women from across the country had assembled at Jantar Mantar in Delhi to participate in a collective agitation for their community. Many Koli women from Versova, Mumbai, were there and I knew some of them personally. Parliament was in session at that time and they came to see me during the lunch break at my official residence on Talkatora Road.

They expressed their desire to meet Mrs. Gandhi. I asked them, “Why do you want to see her?” They told me that they like her. One of them told me that her mother had met Mrs. Indira Gandhi long ago and she has a photograph of her mother with Indiraji. If she gets an opportunity to take a photograph with Sonia Gandhiji, her photo frame will be complete. I assured them that I will convey their request to madam.

Post-lunch, I met Mrs. Gandhi in the Lok Sabha and told her excitedly about Indiraji’s photo with the mother of a Koli woman and requested her to meet them for ten minutes. I saw a spark in her eyes. She has tremendous respect for Indiraji and they were clearly very close. She happily agreed to meet them.

By 6’O clock in the evening, I was at 10 Janpath with all the Koli women from Versova. She met them elegantly, got photographed with them and offered snacks and tea to them. She took a lot of interest in knowing about the meeting between Indiraji and Koli women in the past.

Traditionally, Indian daughters-in-law are expected to preserve and carry forward the legacy of their husband’s family. Many women take pride in doing so. Mrs. Gandhi is also the quintessential Indian bahu. She proudly discharges her duty as a responsible bahu of the Nehru-Gandhi family. She never forgets her responsibility to carry forward the ideological and social legacy of the family.

Ideologically, she is a proud Nehruvian and socially and traditionally, an Indira-ite. She never misses an opportunity to pay respect to anyone who was, at any point in time, related to Nehruji or Indiraji. There is a unique Indianness in her that I have grown to admire.

(This article was first published in National Herald on Sunday)