Crowd cheers though Sonia takes the beaten track
Sunil Kumar in Hyderabad
Just her third political speech. And Sonia Gandhi seems to have already run out of issues which would catch her rivals and the media napping.
Addressing a massive gathering at the Nizam College grounds in Hyderabad, Sonia made little effort to ensure that her speech did not slip into a weather-beaten formula.
She again tried to clear the misgivings about her nationality -- ''I had become part of India when I became the late prime minister Indira Gandhi's eldest daughter-in-law 30 years ago.''
She again talked about the dangers of bringing a communal party to power -- not naming the Bharatiya Janata Party, of course. And about the Congress's close association with Andhra Pradesh -- that Indira Gandhi had got a new lease of political life after she won the Lok Sabha election from Medak; that Rajiv had made Hyderabad his home when he was training to become a pilot in Indian Airlines; that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation's project for the education of the girl child had its headquarters in Hyderabad; that Rajiv addressed his last public meeting in Visakhpatnam.
Though the high expectations that she kicked up -- following the challenge she threw at the United Front government at Bangalore on Thursday, daring them to release the Bofors papers -- were gnawed away by her oft-repeated themes, the crowd seemed enthusiastic.
Descending at the venue at 1000 hours from all over the state, the crowd seemed quite pleased when she expressed her Sankranti and Ramzan greetings in Telugu. The meeting began at 1415 hours, and the crowd, estimated at more than 100,000, braved the oppressive heat.
With Rayalaseema strongman Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy translating her speech into Telugu, Sonia was soon talking about the tragic suicides of cotton growers in Warangal district.
Indirectly attacking the BJP, Sonia said she
was pained at the attempts of some to divide the country
on communal lines. "I am anguished," she said.
Referring to the Babri Masjid, she said her husband had preferred to sacrifice his life to protect the religious place. ''Just about a month before he was assassinated, my husband had said to me that if ever an attempt was made to touch the Masjid he would stand in front of it, and they would have to kill him first.''
Promising a stable government, Sonia said, "Do not vote on the
basis of caste, communal and religious lines. Vote as Indians.
Only the Congress has a vision which extends to the whole of
India."
Former chief minister and Congress Working Committee member Kotla Vijayabhaskara Reddy, state Congress president Mallikarjun and Congress Legislature Party leader P Janardhan Reddy also addressed the gathering.
Though cutouts of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Dr B R Ambedkar, Babu Jagjivan Ram, Tanguturi Prakasam, Sonia, Vijayabhaskara Reddy, Congress president Sitaram Kesri and Mallikarjun were erected at the venue, former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, who hails from AP, was conspicuous by his absence from this plywood pantheon.
As for the security forces, Sonia gave them some anxious moments when she walked up to the edge of the huge stage to wave to the crowd. Alert Special Protection Group personnel immediately ran towards her.
The city police, too, were worried when they detected some gelatine sticks on Sonia's route from the airport to Raj Bhavan during a security drill on Thursday.
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