RANCHI/GUWAHATI, JAN 21: Sonia Gandhi's penchant to come up with a theme-a-day appears to be wearing thin. With daughter Priyanka at her elbow, Rajiv Gandhi's widow reminded a sparse crowd of 7,000 at the historic Judges' Field in Guwahati of her personal anguish and her family's ``sacrifices for the country'' and Rajiv Gandhi's ``unwavering commitment to bring peace and normalcy to the seven north-eastern states.''In Ranchi's Morahabadi Maidan later in the day, with well-rehearsed vehemence she reiterated the Congress party's commitment to a ``stable, strong, courageous and far-sighted government at the Centre''. The Ranchi meeting was to have been jointly addressed by Sitaram Kesri. The Congress president did not arrive, but not one of the speakers thought it fit to take notice of his absence or explain it.The thinly attended rally in Guwahati was in stark contrast to the 35,000 that packed the Ranchi Maidan. The Jharkhand heartland gave the mother and daughter a hero's welcome lining the route from the airport to the Maidan with Congress flags and cheering full-throated as the convoy whizzed past. ``Hum dekhne aye the. Dekh liye. Lekin vote nahin denge'' (``We came to see them. We have seen them. But we won't vote for them''), said Dr Arti Singh, a lecturer at Ranchi's Sanjay Gandhi College. ``It is a national shame that a party which led the freedom movement is using these two women for its survival,'' said advocate Arbind Lal, with the vehemence one would associate with a misogynist. Also irked, though for a different reason, was Sangita, a class X student of Ursuline Convent run by the Catholic Church. ``We had no choice but to line up to cheer Soniaji. Our teachers forced us to do it,'' she said in a whisper.In the local adivasi students' hostel, where posters of Princess Diana vie for space with Silvester Stallone, Lalit Oraon announced with the elan of an oracle that he and his friends ``would have nothing to do with a party of scamsters. Period.'' But state-level leaders of the Congress partycould well be preening themselves for a job well done. The turnout was probably better than they had expected, ``and certainly better than the reception she got in Guwahati earlier today'' (as one functionary of the Ranchi unit pointed out).If the frenetic zig-zagging of the country for election rallies is beginning to tell on Sonia, she did well to hide it. With programmed regularity she and Priyanka acknowledged the cheers of the crowds and smiled expansively for no apparent reason. The turnout in Guwahati was the lowest Sonia has attracted since her Sriperumbudur rally 10 days ago. Thirty-one hastily-painted cut-outs of Indira, Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi, and Priyanka. No other Congress leader merited even a poster. Even Sitaram Kesri's rally in the Assam capital two months ago had attracted a better crowd.After she was presented a traditional Assamese jaapi (field hat) which was, perhaps symbolically a little over-sized, Sonia began: ``Mere pati Rajiv Gandhi..'' She reminded Guwahati of her husband's efforts to bring peace and normalcy to the North-East: the Assam Accord, and the Mizo and Tripura accords. During her eight-minute speech in Hindi, Sonia said she knew and understood the pain of violence. ``I too have suffered. When I picked up the bullet-riddled body of Indiraji, and again when my husband was assassinated,'' she said. Tarun Gogoi, president of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee and former Union minister, predictably targeted the ruling AGP government. During his 10 minute speech, Gogoi uttered ``Soniaji'' exactly 48 times. But what took the cake was his beginning his welcome address with Mananiya Indiraji, much to the disbelief and amusement of the 7,000-strong crowd.
