Sonia Gandhi leads from the front to defend Congress-led UPA

The Monsoon session of the Parliament saw a different Sonia Gandhi, the UPA Chairperson. During the proceedings of the first day of the monsoon session, the members saw an positively aggressive face of the Congress President when senior BJP leader and MP LK Advani termed the ruling Congress-led UPA coalition as illegitimate.

Sonia Gandhi and Congress benches erupted in protests when Advani, initiating a discussion on the recent ethnic violence in lower Assam, suggested that the UPA had lost its legitimacy after the controversial trust vote necessitated by the Left's withdrawal of support over the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008. The comment by Advani irritated the UPA chairperson and she furiously gesticulated towards the BJP benches. Taking a cue from her, Congress MPs interrupted Advani and insisted that the reference be withdrawn, rejecting Advani's explanation that his attack was directed at UPA-I rather than the current dispensation.

Sonia Gandhi made it clear to BJP benches that she was not willing to settle for anything less than an outright withdrawal of the remark. She has on occasions reacted to Opposition provocations, but on Wednesday showed sustained aggression till the BJP leader bowed to the Speaker's advice and withdrew his comment. Sonia Gandhi displayed the perfect quality of a matured leader.

With the uncharacteristic display of aggression, Sonia Gandhi seemed to be more active, especially in the absence of Pranab Mukherjee. The Congress President has shown her class and maturity when she forced party MPs from Telangana to abort their plan to disrupt the House with their demand for statehood for the region.

A determined Sonia Gandhi firmly asked Congress MPs from Telangana not to disrupt proceedings. After the T-block raised slogans, Sonia Gandhi told the MPs that their behaviour is unacceptable, saying it gave the Opposition an opportunity to allege Congress is orchestrating sloganeering to stall Parliament. Sonia told the Congress MPs that they should not embarrass the party. Her intervention helped the government avoid sniping from within.

This positively aggressive face of the Congress President proves to be very beneficial for the Congress who has been under attack on various charges and anyone who watched the earlier proceedings in the Parliament, could have felt a fact beyond doubt that it was Sonia Gandhi who scored full points by displaying one of her best parliamentary performances.

This article is posted by pressbrief.in