25 May 2002
SONIA MAY BE DURGA FOR
CONGRESSMEN BUT SHE KNOWS SHE IS FRIGHTENED, CONFUSED
From
Jal Khambata
NEW DELHI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi
imbibes certain secret thoughts, confusion and fears of war that she
wanted to share with the Congress leaders gathered at the AICC
session here on Friday from across the country but on second thought
she opted to let them remain secret.
She was told by her
political advisors that sharing her thoughts would depict her as a
frightened, weak woman belying the image of a lady ready to take over
as the Prime Minister and Delhi PCC chief Subhash Chopra even hailing
her as "Durga" during the day-long AICC session. Advisors
told her that she should be a picture of confidence and not
worry.
And, so she dropped a paragraph from her concluding
remarks and instead opted to point out that she alone or for that
matter any one person cannot achieve everything stressed at the
session as what was needed is a "team work" by all,
dropping their personal prejudices and interests.
Her secret
thoughts, however, did not remain secret as an enthusiastic Media
Department of the AICC quickly distributed to the dispersing media
persons the "silent (sic, should be salient) points on the
concluding remarks by the Congress President" without realising
that she had omitted references to war in her speech.
Here are
these secret thoughts verbatim:
"I don't know how the
current tension on the border is going to work itself out over the
next few days.
"I am as much worried as all of you and
indeed as all of the country. I have been repeatedly saying that we
support the government in its efforts to stamp out cross-border
terrorism and restore peace in Jammu and Kashmir.
"But we
are perplexed and confused and disturbed by what different people in
the government say at different times. Talk of clouds, skies and
lightning may be good poetry but does not make for coherent and
effective diplomacy." END