Few images can possibly be as surreal as that of Sonia Gandhi filing a nomination paper for her re-election as Congress party president. "Why four times, she could be the party president 40 times if the party wants," Janardan Dwivedi, a general secretary of the party said in response to the Bharatiya Janata Party's suggestion that she should offer the position to someone from outside the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. A fitting response to a mischievous suggestion. After all, doesn't she remember the days when Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri were at the helm? Isn't she acutely aware that there is a world of difference between power without accountability and recognition without power?

Doesn't it make sense for the Congress, then, to do away with the farce of elections for the post of party president? In any case, it doesn't make the party any more democratic if it goes through the charade of periodically re-electing someone who calls the shots anyway. In fact, it wouldn't make the party any less democratic either if the party chief is formally called the queen, with a prince as heir apparent, instead of president.