Sonia Gandhi back as NAC chairperson

Head of India's ruling Congress party Sonia Gandhi is back as the chief of National Advisory Council (NAC) revived by the Indian government after four years.
The council, which under Sonia as its chairperson had played a key role in the policies of the first coalition government Congress headed from 2004 to 2006, is once again expected to list the priorities for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's dispensation.
As the chairperson of the council, Sonia will enjoy the status of a federal cabinet minister.
The NAC was constituted first soon after Congress had come back to power in May 2004, but Sonia had resigned from the council on March 23, 2006 and her Lok Sabha seat in the wake of a controversy over whether a person can be a member of parliament and hold an office of profit.
However, parliament later passed the Office of Profit Bill exempting 56 posts including the chairperson of the NAC.
As long as Sonia was the head of the council, it had played a crucial role in drafting the Congress-led government's flagship social welfare programmes relating to rural employment and indigenous people's right to forest resources.