By Sondip Bhattacharya
So, what’s wrong with Sonia Gandhi? She flew out to the US in utmost and uncanny secrecy, for an undisclosed surgery, while the nation speculated (and continues to do so) intensely about the nature of the ailment that rushed the Congress chairperson – and in every way its nerve centre – to foreign shores for an operation.
It’s uncanny because for a party genetically compelled to fawn over the slightest of issues around anyone from the famed Gandhi dynasty to actually have been able to pull an iron curtain of secrecy around its most treasured asset was quite an effort.
As twitter and other networks on the web peaked about what ails Sonia, one wondered why there was need for such secrecy around the medical bulletin of a person of her stature which should have been an essential national announcement.
It’s surprising why at all there needs to be secrecy on what ails any national leader. Generally, it’s the Communist leaders of the world who have been known to wrap a veil around their ailing top leaders who are often too old and infirm to carry on with normal life. The explanation with such leaders’ failing health being kept away from public knowledge has traditionally been that Communist operations at all levels of policy are essentially secret and the we-will-not-tell-anyone-about-anything is a mere extension of such a, well, non-glasnost syndrome.
Democracy, however, thrives on openness but when it comes to Indians, it’s a unique mix of this-is-to-tell-and that-is-not psyche. Though India has never been a Communist nation, this secrecy sheen around almost everything at the Government level – even the most innocuous of happenings – has been a part of policy.
In that context, keeping Sonia Gandhi’s health condition away from public scrutiny seems to be part of the system, even though one wonders what difference it would have made for the party to be candid about it’s chairperson’s illness – at least a tell-all announcement would have ebbed the wild speculation that is exchanging views over social networking sites where everything from cancer to other complicated ailments are being speculated upon, especially with the Gandhi family choosing an overseas hospital over the vibrant medical facilities and expertise in India.
To take recent cases, one did not know much about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s impending heart operation till he actually drove down for surgery. It was only after NCP chief Sharad Pawar vanished from public view that speculation around his oral cavity cancer peaked. Nothing, of course, came from him or the family officially to suggest what his ailment was – till much after he was put under the knife for cancer removal and reconstruction surgery of the jaw.
Often leader’s whose political future is connected with their national campaigns, and whose ill-health is perceived to upset the applecart of their nation’s future, do not talk about their illnesses. Imagine if the world were to come to know at this juncture that Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi is suffering from a life threatening disease? This would be the strongest fillip in the veins of the rebel movement that the Gaddafi regime is fighting.
Likewise, Fidel Castro’s health condition was always part of intense espionage by the US. And much after the Americans stopped gunning for the Cuban leader, he kept it a secret that he was ailing and may not be in a position to hold leadership for a long time.
Castro’s illness was perceived to be directly proportional to the health of his party and Cuba had not known any other leader for close to five decades. Right from 2000 when this legendary leader blacked out at a public meeting, to 2008 when he finally announced his physical condition would not allow him to be at the helm anymore, there was never any confirmation on what he ailed of. His Government vociferously denied he had pancreatic cancer even though he apparently underwent an intestinal procedure.
The PLO leader Yasser Arafat died in mystery and till today one doesn’t know what happened to him at that French hospital where he breathed his last in 2004. Cirrhosis was the widely speculated ailment propelled in public domain though a Mossad poisoning operation did tail him to his grave.
Then there’s the very recent illness of Nursultan Nazarbayev who was operated upon last month at a medical facility in Hamburg. For all the time that this sole leader Kazakhstan has known at its helm, the government kept insisting that he was on vacation till Germany’s Bild newspaper scooped the story of his surgery. It made sense for the secrecy around Nazarbayev’s illness (apparently to do with his prostrate) as his CIS nation has known only him as leader for its entire existence.
The nation is on the world map of international diplomacy due to its oil reserves and other natural assets. Any shadow on its leader would’ve overshadowed the future of his country.
Same was the case with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez who was having more problems keeping his pelvic ailment (speculated to be malignant) under wraps than dealing with the ailment itself. The intense debate around a post-Chaves Venezuela propelled him to come forth with an explanation and then, after two operations, announce from his hospital bed overseas that he was fit enough to run for the next round of elections.
The ailments may be different from Sonia Gandhi to Nazarbayev, but secrecy around them emanates from the fact that in all these cases it is the personality whose fortunes directly impact the future of their political set-ups.
A Congress with an absent Sonia Gandhi looks as clueless in maintaining power as Kazakhstan, or for that matter Venezuela, would be in maintaining its identity. So, in that context, perhaps a complete health bulletin would be the prescription that the ruling coalition should look at – especially when their most treasured leader is on her path to recovery. INAV