Sonia, Left romance begins with Harvest of hatred’

NEW DELHI, Aug 21: The Congress' relations with the Left took a crucial turn for the better today when party president Sonia Gandhi inaug...

NEW DELHI, Aug 21: The Congress’ relations with the Left took a crucial turn for the better today when party president Sonia Gandhi inaugurated an exhibition organised by SAHMAT, a Left NGO, an act which not even her husband and mother-in-law were allowed the luxury of by Leftists in the past.

Normally, the inauguration of an exhibition is a simple act with not much symbolism attached to it. But today’s event was different. SAHMAT is a body which practices a rigid anti-BJP philosophy which included staunch opposition to the Congress too till the recent past. For example, SAHMAT functionaries, who include CPM fulltimers to a large extent, have always campaigned vigorously against the BJP and the Congress in successive elections.

But by allowing a Congress president to inaugurate its function, the CPM-dominated organisation was embracing the 114-year-old party and legitimising Sonia’s primacy in the fight against the RSS-led bloc. The symbolism also extends to unifying the two parties in their battleagainst the BJP, a little of which is being fought via the exhibition itself titled “Harvest of hatred”, a compilation of “acts of oppression” under the BJP’s rule.

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The new-found warmth in the Cong-Left relationship is also exemplified by the CPM and CPI’s sanctifying of Sonia’s credentials to be Prime Minister of the country, something which even ardent Congressmen like Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and Tariq Anwar take severe offence to. In fact, the two main Left parties are more comfortable with the thought of Sonia as PM instead of Manmohan Singh. More important, veterans like Jyoti Basu, Harkishen Singh Surjeet and A B Bardhan have accepted Sonia after having fought Indira Gandhi and Rajiv. Thus, at one level, Sonia has managed to bring the Congress back to the level of credibility, in the Left’s eyes, last enjoyed in the Nehru era.

Some months ago, Sonia and Basu practically gushed over each other when Basu delivered the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture, where he heaped praise on Nehru. Soniaalso compared Basu to the Congress icon in West Bengal, its first Chief Minister B C Roy. And now, the Congress and the Left are going hand in hand in Punjab for the coming elections.

The 13 Punjab seats were shared by the two with the Congress contesting in 11 and helping the CPM and CPI in one each. Though no plans have been made for a joint campaign by Sonia and Basu, cadres of the two organisations have been told to help each other, in itself remarkable considering the bitter rivalry of the past.

Sonia spent a fair bit of time at the “Harvest of hatred” exhibition which displayed photographs of the murders of Graham Staines and his two children, which shook Sonia and led to her sacking of the then Orissa Chief Minister J B Patnaik. Also on show were cartoons by Irfan Hussain, Laxman, Unny, Keshav, Sudhir Tailang and others on the “irony” of communal killings.