Look, when Sonia holds no punches, NDA just makes her its punching bag

Defence Minister George Fernandes and Sports Minister Uma Bharti fanned the flames. Bharti went to the extent of saying she wanted to protest against Sonia Gandhi chewing gum in the House and incited her MPs to disrupt the House.

This is the third time in recent weeks that the government has resorted to Sonia-bashing to deflect rising criticism over Gujarat. It happened during the March 26 POTA debate when Vajpayee himself used this ploy at the joint session of Parliament to turn the focus away from Gujarat.

The PM did it again on Saturday when he used the CII’s annual meet as a platform to hit out at Sonia after business leaders spent an afternoon expressing concern over the continuing violence in the state. Today, Fernandes and Bharti led the charge.

Congress circles, although a bit perturbed by the personal nature of the attacks, feel that by turning the spotlight on Sonia in the context of Gujarat, the NDA is actually doing her a favour. She emerges as the natural alternative, they feel, a kind of shadow prime minister for the anti-BJP forces to rally around.

Some of them recall the manner in which the Janata government went after Indira Gandhi in 1977-78. They pointed out that this only helped her in the march back to power in 1980 because it kept the nation’s attention focused on her.

Sonia’s strong stand on the Gujarat violence has certainly made the ruling coalition sit up and take note of her. BJP members grudgingly praise the content and delivery of the last three speeches she has made, the one during the POTA debate, the one to the CII and today’s.

In fact, when she spoke today, there was pin-drop silence in the Lok Sabha as MPs listened attentively to what she had to say. They finally seemed to be taking her seriously, not just as president of the Congress party but as Leader of the Opposition. In various rooms in Parliament House too, people crowded in front of television sets to hear her speech.

Buoyed by the response she is getting, Sonia seems to have decided to take the BJP head on. She attacked Vajpayee sharply today, mocking him for flip-flopping on the Gujarat issue. ‘‘When the Prime Minister himself engages in such doublespeak, what can the nation expect of this government?’’ she asked.

She also gave a strong rejoinder to Vajpayee’s allegation that the Opposition had not criticised the Godhra massacre. Reminding the House that she was the first to condemn the incident on the very day it happened, she asserted, ‘‘Now, I wonder what prevented the Prime Minister as the leader of this country, the leader of this House, from taking the lead in the matter. It is regrettable that the Prime Minister should project this failure of his as Parliament’s dereliction.’’

This time, Sonia made it a point to list the steps the Congress feels the government should take to restore normalcy in Gujarat. She suggested that the Centre use Article 355 to put the Gujarat government on notice for failing to curb the violence. She demanded the removal of Narendra Modi and the appointment of a sitting Supreme Court judge to inquire into both the Godhra massacre and the subsequent violence. She asked the Centre to implement recommendations of National Human Rights Commission which include a CBI inquiry.