Congress Party

The Congress Party appears as the governing power whose electoral dominance made influence over its members seem equivalent to influence over India itself. The novel links that national authority to both a rumor about Madame Zhou’s rise and a later, unconfirmed radio report of political violence in New Delhi, while leaving the party’s internal structure and direct responsibility for the reported events unexplored.

Political Dominance

In the account of Madame Zhou’s early history, the Congress Party is described as governing India through the 1960s with what seemed an unassailable lead in national polls. Its supporters, and even its opponents, reportedly expected it to continue ruling for a hundred years. This widespread expectation gives the party’s political position a quality of permanence: power within the Congress Party could be understood as power over the nation.

Rumors About Influence

Madame Zhou’s private history remains unverifiable, but one persistent legend connects her to a KGB officer who supposedly used her beauty to influence prominent Congress Party officials. The narrative presents this as rumor rather than established fact. Its significance lies in the scale of the alleged leverage: because the party was thought to command India’s political future, influence over its officials was imagined as influence over the country itself.

Reports of Communal Unrest

Later, amid unrest following Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Vikram reports hearing on the radio that Congress Party gangs were moving from house to house in Delhi and seeking confrontations with Sikhs. The account establishes what the characters hear, not independent confirmation of the report or the party’s organizational role in the violence. Set against the earlier image of electoral security, the report shows political dominance appearing in a more volatile form: as an association between party power, street-level mobilization, and communal tension.