First the strategy was to ignore a political novice like her. Then it was to humour her but treat her with measured contempt. Now, it would seem, the BJP can't but bare its fangs at her. Last week, as the record 16-hour non-stop censure motion in the Lok Sabha rolled on, star speakers from the treasury benches appeared to forget their lines: instead of talking about Gujarat and the communal riots, the focus of their speeches was trained on an unlikely target: Sonia Gandhi.
It is now clear that the Congress president and her party are the BJP's enemy No. 1. A far cry from the scenario after the general elections in 1999 when the Congress was left struggling with a dismal 111 Lok Sabha seats, an all-time low for the country's oldest party. Political pundits had then practically written Sonia off and declared the Congress the original dinosaur. To many it looked as if the party was well and truly over. But two-and-a-half years later, their prognosis has proved inaccurate. Sonia's graph is on the rise, thanks to persistent gaffes by the NDA and the hardline posturing of the Sangh...
