Advani faces flak for calling on Sonia

Two days after the Congress welcomed senior BJP leader LK Advani’s decision to call on Congress president Sonia Gandhi to greet her on Holi and present her his autobiography, the party on Monday made an about turn to launch a sharp attack on the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha for his gesture. It is imperative for the PM-in-waiting to realise that “neither image nor substance” is made by doing “Congress-bashing and personalised bashing” in the book and in the book release function “and then doing the hypocrisy of visiting those whom he has bashed”, AICC spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said at a press briefing on Monday. “The word is hypocrisy, not statesmanship,” he added.

The realisation of Advani’s so-called hypocrisy apparently dawned late on Congress leaders as they had very nice words to say about Advani’s gesture initially. Only a few hours after Advani along with his wife had paid a visit to 10, Janpath, Singhvi had said the Opposition leader’s “spontaneous gesture” was met “in equal spirit” by Sonia Gandhi. He had found it “an interesting thing” in a democracy since Advani and Sonia Gandhi were “political adversaries”.

In his autobiography “My Country, My Life”, Advani has made critical references to Sonia’s foreign origin and her family’s links with Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, among others.

Meanwhile, reacting to Advani’s visit, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh told reporters on Monday: “I am happy that Advaniji went to 10, Janpath on Holi. I always felt that despite having spent so much time with Vajpayeeji, Advaniji did not show the kind of statesmanship Atalji had.”