Amid the leadership crisis in the Congress post Rahul Gandhi's decision to resign as party president, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi has stepped up her role as the party's leader in Parliament, marshalling Congress MPs in taking on the Narendra Modi government. Sonia has also taken charge of fine-tuning the Congress parliamentary strategy.
Sonia took a last-minute decision to attend a scheduled meeting of opposition parties in Parliament. This caused a change in the venue of the meet, from the office of Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, to the Congress parliamentary party office. Sonia is learnt to have asked the opposition leaders to formulate a common strategy on Parliament.
The change of location to the CPP office, however, resulted in the Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party skipping the meeting. But the two parties were present as the Rajya Sabha floor leaders of the opposition parties met later in Azad's room.
As the Congress Lok Sabha MPs met on Tuesday morning to draw up the strategy for the Lower House, Sonia is learnt to have emphasised upon the party taking up US President Donald Trump's remarks that Modi had, during their recent meeting in Osaka, sought his mediation in the Kashmir issue. She said that the other opposition parties needed to be roped in on the issue and directed party MP Manish Tewari to raise the issue in the Lok Sabha.
As Tewari raised the issue during the zero hour in the Lok Sabha, Sonia took out a sheaf of papers from her folder and passed them onto him. The papers turned out to be a transcript of Trump's remarks on Kashmir and were intended to boost Tewari's attack on the government. Tewari demanded a response from none other than the prime minister on the issue, and the demand was supported by other opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress and the DMK.
Again, on Wednesday, Sonia, who is also the Congress Parliamentary Party president, attended the morning meeting of the party MPs. She had usually attended the meeting only on Tuesdays. But Sonia has taken charge of the party's strategy for Parliament at a time when Trump's remarks provide the Congress and other opposition parties with potent ammunition to attack the Modi regime. It also comes at a time when the opposition is up in arms against the Modi government allegedly rushing through bills in the ongoing session without adequate parliamentary scrutiny.
Sonia ratcheted her party's opposition to the changes that the government proposes to bring in the Right to Information Act through an amendment bill by coming out with a strongly worded statement. She said the proposed amendments would bring the RTI law to the brink of extinction. Her strong protest coincides with the Congress, together with other opposition parties, ramping up protests against the RTI Amendment Bill, which was passed by the Lok Sabha and will now be taken up by the Rajya Sabha.
Sonia has been regularly attending Parliament, making it a point to be present in the Lok Sabha at least during the first half, when she can be seen encouraging her party colleagues as they raise issues in the House, offering suggestions and even reaching out to leaders from the other opposition parties.