Sonia does a Gandhi, courts arrest in Delhi

And so, Sunday was a working day for the party’s rusting brass, baring Arjun Singh. N D Tewari came, to be bodily scooped in and out of custody. So did Natwar Singh, who did his bit for the TV cameras. Also, Mani Shankar Aiyer, who took a youthful jump out of the truck at the Tuglak Road police station, nearly dislocating his knee.

Sonia’s introduction to agitational politics was a well-calculated move. Mahatma Gandhi’s martyrdom day came in handy, given the issues involved the Gujarat BJP Government’s lifting of a ban on state employees participating in the activitiesof the RSS, and the “unofficial ban” in UP on new madarassas opening without official clearance.

In her first brush with street-level protests, Sonia was remarkably unfazed as she took the lead in breaking the police cordon at Tis January Marg shouting “Vande Mataram” all the way. This left no option for the CWC bigwigs, who were till then taking the whole affair as a mere act of tokenism, but to follow suit. Left to Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Congress crowd would have called it a day the moment Sonia was arrested, forced into a car and whisked away.

Azad was nearly finishing his impromptu media address, when Madhavarao Scindia popped up from nowhere and dragged him by his achkan back to the scene of action to revive the tempo. This was oxygen for the other leaders at the site, like Pranab Mukherjee, P R Das Munshi, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Motilal Vohra, R K Dhwan et al. Scindia quite the hero of the day insisted that they would stick to their original plan of marching the way to the Prime Minister’sresidence at 1, Race Course Road till the police stop them and put them under arrest.

At the Tuglak Road police station, arrested Congress leaders sat on a dari quickly spread out by the obliging SHO and an informal banter session started. Scindia jokingly reminded Dhawan: “Remember you’re not a free man. You are under arrest.” And Das Munshi refused tea on behalf of his colleagues, saying, with much mirth: “Hum idhar chai piyenge, udhar apka griha mantri bolenge hum log sarkar ka paisa kharcha kar rahe hain.” The serious note was provided by Mukherjee and Natwar, who took turns in commenting on the BJP-led Government’s “destructive policies:

“Legitimising the activities of the RSS and trying to radically alter the character of the Indian Constitution.”

The Congress leaders were released at 10.30 am, after an hour of rough-and-tumble grassroots politics with Ambica Soni calling the shots.