<img alt="" src="/imagedata/2010/jun/dilli.jpg" align="left" border="0" />The absence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Dilli, even if it is temporary, tellingly brought political equations within the party into public gaze. So while there is no respite from the scams in the monsoon session of Parliament and the government is in defensive mode, partymen seem to be feeling vulnerable to attacks from detractors, who now seem to include practically everyone else. Reading the tea leaves is not for all, but Dilli has been trying to figure out the changed dynamics within the party in Ms Gandhi's absence. Obviously, the names on the four-member panel which has been assigned to stand-in for the party president were of as much interest as those who were omitted despite their perceived stature in the public mind. Speculation on the change in the pecking order is likely to keep not just the public but even party workers occupied for some time. The attacks on the government will only make the dilemma more acute. Future shock A bit of trivia for the 'Chak de India' brigade: Standard &amp; Poor's downgrade of US credit rating which caused such a global furore happened under the watch of an Indian. Deven Sharma has been president of S&amp;P since 2007. That said, the ensuing market turmoil had many wondering how India would be impacted by the debt crisis in the United States.u00a0 Though still an evolving situation, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee reassured us that the fallout would be limited in the long term and may even help ease Dilli's inflation blues in the days ahead. While assorted pundits and analysts work that out, there are some concerns that should register with the number crunchers in the finance ministry, notably the China factor. It is already crying for reassessing the dollar as the world economy's reserve currency. It's a though that Dilli needs to ponder and perhaps begin preparing for the day when the yuan takes over from the dollar as the reigning currency.

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The absence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi from Dilli, even if it is temporary, tellingly brought political equations within the party into public gaze

In absentia

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