Sonia Gandhi at the meeting. Picture credit: Colin Patterson

London, March 18: Sonia Gandhi cracked a few jokes at the 14th Commonwealth Lecture here last night and got her 600-strong audience going.

Which raises the question why she made such a fuss about banning press photographers and TV cameras — on the evidence of last night, she would have had hardened hacks eating out of her hands.

First, given the imminence of the Bengal polls, did Sonia include a positive mention of Mamata Banerjee? Yes and no. “Women are presidents of four of our major political parties,” she said.

After just the right pause, she added with a little smile: “And I am one of them!”

Apart from herself, Sonia was referring to Mamata, Mayavati and Jayalalithaa.

Sonia’s chosen theme was “women as agents of change” during which she managed a very clever trick. After a sobering account of the challenges still facing Indian women — “most worrying of all is the declining sex ratio” — she turned the subject round 180 degrees to give an upbeat assessment of “the silent revolution” that had occurred.

The audience, at least half of whom were Indians, had come not so much to hear what she had to say but to witness the Sonia Show. The venue was the chandeliered ballroom of 8 Northumberland Avenue, where security staff took cameras off people.

Judging by audience reaction afterwards, Sonia did not disappoint.

“A visitor to contemporary India will be impressed by the prominence of women in all aspects of life,” Sonia said. “And it is not by government action alone that this silent revolution is taking place. Today, women in India are becoming agents of change through their own initiative, their energy and enterprise.”

She said: “India’s President is a woman, as are the Speaker and the leader of the Opposition in the Lower House.... The chief minister of India’s most populous state is a woman from a section of society subjected to discrimination for centuries.”

Sonia described Indian women’s prominence in the various professions and their progress in education and cited how, in the Delhi Commonwealth Games, women won the most medals for India.

“In a poignant interview, one of them recalled that her parents had wished her to be a boy but reconciled themselves after she developed her sporting prowess.”

Behind the scenes, various people probably helped Sonia with her speech (including possibly Commonwealth secretary-general Kamalesh Sharma, who sat next to her), but the best bits were her little personal touches.

Sonia was wise enough to begin with a joke, mentioning one of “the colourful episodes that took place behind the scenes” at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings where she used to accompany husband Rajiv Gandhi.

“At the 1985 CHOGM in the Bahamas, the issue of sanctions against South Africa dominated the discussions. Margaret Thatcher stood out in solitary opposition to the... call for sanctions.... At the weekend retreat, Shridath Ramphal put together a three-member team to talk informally to Mrs Thatcher and persuade her to relent. They were Rajiv Gandhi, Brian Mulroney of Canada and Robert Hawke of Australia, selected by him apparently as much for their looks as their political weight.”

The audience laughed as Sonia warmed to her theme: “In private, he jokingly told them, ‘She will not be able to resist the three best-looking men of the conference.’ The Iron Lady was unmoved and the handsome threesome failed either to charm or to persuade her.”

She paid a tribute to the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru and to her late mother-in-law. “The modern Commonwealth owes much to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.”

She also said: “The two most influential women personalities of the 20th century — Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher — were both Commonwealth leaders. Margaret Thatcher changed Britain. Indira Gandhi changed India. Indira Gandhi was described as the only man in her cabinet, much as Margaret Thatcher was in Britain -— the assumption being that it is only men who shape our destinies and alter the course of events.”

It’s a pity she rushed out after her lecture instead of staying and chatting to her new fan club.