New Delhi: Mother did the backdoor job while son took centre stage. On Wednesday, when Rahul Rahul Gandhi, who began his speech discussion on no-confidence after a long hiatus with a sarcastic remark on Adani before launching a fusillade of attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Manipur violence, it was his mother Sonia Gandhi who silently took the onus of passing notes as information piece of advice to her son.
Even as her son took centre stage, Sonia worked silently behind the limelight. Gandhi Scion led his party from the front after BJP MP Smriti Irani launched an all-out attack on the opposition.
Amid a high-pitched battle of arguments and counterarguments between treasury benches and the opposition, Sonia Gandhi was seen egging on her MPs amid the chaos, which ensued during speeches of Gandhi and Irani. When Rahul Gandhi left the House after his speech, Sonia Gandhi remained seated in the House throughout Irani’s more than an hour-long speech.
During Rahul’s speech, Sonia Gandhi and National Conference Patron Farooq Abdullah were advising him all along. Sonia Gandhi was also seen passing on messages to Rahul during his speech through Gaurav Gogoi and the leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. When the opposition objected to union minister Kiren Rijiju’s mike being switched on during Rahul Gandhi’s speech, Sonia Gandhi even stood up and on her egging on, several Congress and other opposition MPs jumped into the well of the house, protesting vociferously.
During the entire duration of Smriti Irani's speech, Sonia Gandhi kept giving directions to her MPs to protest and shout slogans. Irritated by the veteran Congress leader's aggressive stance, Irani, without taking her name, pointed out that opposition members were being remote-controlled. Usually silent, Sonia Gandhi was once seen shouting ‘Manipur! Manipur!’ while sitting in her seat.
