Congress finds itself ‘better off outside’

From Trinamool to Left, RJD and Samajwadi Party, Cong scouts for, finds support against suspension.

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Sonia Gandhi , Rahul Gandhi, Manmohan Singh standing; Gaurav Gogoi, Rajeev Satav, Abhijit Mukherjee, Ranjeet Ranjan, Deepender Hooda seated. (Source: Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)

It was meant to be punitive action for disrupting Parliament but the Congress is going all out to make the most of it. It is treating the five-day suspension of 25 MPs as a “blessing in disguise”, as Rahul Gandhi was heard telling one of the suspended MPs soon after the protest in front of Parliament.

After the protest had ended, Rahul was heard telling Assam MP Gaurav Gogoi, “What do you make of this? Don’t you think it is a blessing in disguise? I think we are better off outside.” This was minutes before he made the pitch in front of television cameras about how, even if the entire Congress is thrown out of the House, there is the entire country left to go to.

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Work on cashing in on that “blessing in disguise” had started much before. On Monday, hours after triumphant declarations of NDA ministers about the “isolation” of the Congress in an all-party meeting, the Congress had started to pool resources to make capital of the suspension.

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Sonia Gandhi had called Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha leader Sudip Bandopadhyay to ask him if his party would boycott the Lok Sabha if the Congress decided to do so. Sudip told her he would need to consult Mamata Banerjee. He got back with a rider — the Trinamool would support the Congress, but it is not with the Left on any political decision.

“I conveyed that to Mrs Gandhi and she burst out laughing,” Sudip told The Indian Express. “That is why the Trinamool was one of the first parties to declare its decision to boycott the Lok Sabha.”

Ghulam Nabi Azad, meanwhile, had called up the CPI, the CPM, the Samajwadi Party, the BSP, the NCP, the JD(U) and the RJD. At the Congress protest Tuesday morning, the NCP’s Supriya Sule made a brief appearance, along with the RJD’s J P Yadav.

By Tuesday evening not only had the Trinamool and the SP taken up with the Speaker the matter of revoking the suspensions but so had the BJD, which has tended to side with the NDA on many issues.

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The Congress boycotted Tuesday’s meeting of the land bill panel in “solidarity” with the Trinamool, which had walked out of Monday’s meeting. “We have word from the Congress that they are not going there in solidarity and all opposition parties have written to the government asking it not to schedule land meetings before August 10,” said Trinamool spokesman Derek O Brien.