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Media mania at Sonia's first press conference

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

The spectre of Bofors haunted Congress President Sonia Gandhi once again today following her angry rejoinder to a reporter that although the CBI had suspected Ottavio Quattrochi's involvement in the multi-crore howitzer deal, the Vajpayee government could not produce the requisite documents to substantiate the investigating agency's suspicion..

"My husband was crucified over the (Bofors) papers," a visibly-agitated Sonia told a questioner during the crowded press conference where the party's manifesto was released by her. She pointed out that while the Vajpayee government kept repeating that it would bring out the "Bofors papers" in a bid to highlight Rajiv Gandhi's involvement in the howitzer scam, no such papers were forthcoming. "It suits the BJP to keep things hanging," Sonia underscored, adding that the BJP had sought to extract political advantage from the Bofors papers.

Asked whether the Congress would institute an investigation into Bofors if it came to power, she retorted, "Most certainly."

The press conference was marked by all-round confusion, with a Congress manager seeking to allow only the party's media favourites to ask questions to the party chief. However, the majority of the other reporters, angry at such blatant discrimination, kept up a din and some of them shouted questions, asking Sonia to reply to them. The result was bedlam, with the Congress chief often at pains over which reporter to answer first.

Agitated reporters openly complained that the press conference had been stage-managed by party spokesman like Ajit Jogi and Anil Shastri, who were apparently allowing their media favourites to ask questions and disregarding the anxious pleas of the other mediamen. As a result, those ignored showered abuses on Ajit Jogi and Anil Shastri, causing the premature end of the press conference and the hasty singing of the national anthem.

She named the BJP as her party's principal adversary, and also named all those "fanatical organisations sustaining the BJP."

When a reporter asked her why she had lied just before the BJP government had been dislodged in April before the President in Rashtrapati Bhavan when she claimed to have the support of 272 MPs, Sonia shot back, "I am not in the habit of lying." She sought to clarify that what she had said was that 272 members had voted against the Vajpayee government.

The Congress chief made it clear her party did not know when the Indo-Pak composite dialogue would be resumed because it was not aware of the intricacies. She pointed out that "we are not aware what exactly is happening" but if the Congress came to power, "we will take a decision on how to go about it".

The Congress will not share power with its allies because, according to Sonia, "We will be victorious." When another reporter asked her to comment on why she had seat-sharing arrangements with leaders like Laloo Prasad Yadav and Jayalalitha, the Congress chief elicited cheers from her supporters by asking a counter-question: "Tell me, was Jayalalitha clean when she was with the BJP, and she is corrupt now when she is with us?"

She reiterated that stability was her party's main electoral issue because coalition governments, like the 13-month-old Vajpayee government, were unstable and prone to early collapse.

When asked what her contribution was in the party manifesto, she contended that she had interacted with the members of the manifesto committee and "it is as much mine as it is of the party."

The party's minority commission, which is being set up, will decide on the issue for job reservations of the minorities. According to Sonia, the intricacies in this context had been debated and finalised.

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