Back to punching Sonia: Sushma's sharp jibe revives their bitter history

When Sushma Swaraj stood in the Lok Sabha to offer an impassioned defence of herself and her conduct in the controversy involving former IPL chief Lalit Modi, the biggest barb in her speech was reserved for Congress President Sonia Gandhi. “Main poochhna chaahti hoon ki agar meri jagah Sonia ji hoti to kya karti? Marne ke liye chhod deti? (I want to know what Soniaji would have done if she was in my place? Would she have let the woman die?”)" Swaraj said dramatically. Of course, Sonia was nowhere in sight due to her party’s boycott of the Lok Sabha session over the suspension of 25 Congress MPs. “Agar is tarah ki mahila ki madat karna gunah hai toh haan maine gunah kia hai, agar ek mahila ki madad karna apraadh hai, to han maine ye apraadh kia hai (If helping a woman cancer patient is a crime, then I admit having committed this crime),“Swaraj said. [caption id=“attachment_2382944” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Swaraj in Parliament on Thursday. PTI[/caption] Almost a full 24 hours later, Sonia Gandhi offered a terse but damning rejoinder to reporters outside the Lok Sabha. “Sushma ji theatrics karne mein maahir hai, (Sushma ji is very good at theatrics)” she said before walking off to join the Congress protest outside Parliament. There’s good reason for the Congress president to be annoyed at Swaraj. Sonia was an unexpected target given that she’s not even been at the forefront of the Congress attacks on Swaraj, which has been Rahul Gandhi’s bailiwick in Parliament. While bringing up the name of the leader of the biggest opposition party is hardly unheard of, the context – referring to Lalit Modi’s wife who is suffering from cancer – was a loaded one. The Congress president to date has never made it public why she was in the US for surgery in August 2011 or the subsequent check ups, but multiple reports have hinted at the fact that she was treated for cancer at New York’s Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 2011. Given that context, the jibe was clearly aimed under the belt. And then there’s the stormy history two women share. They first sparred for the Bellary seat in 1999 where Swaraj fought and lost against a greenhorn Sonia, despite initially claiming that she wouldn’t contest the polls. When the NDA lost the elections in 2004, Swaraj made headlines when she promised to shave her head, don a white saree and eat groundnuts if the Congress President became the Prime Minister. Swaraj later claimed that he vow was in honour of the Indian freedom struggle against colonialism. “It hurt my sensibilities as even after culmination of British rule and the sacrifices made by fellow Indians, no (native) was there at that time to lead the country and a foreigner was being chosen,” Swaraj later said. Luckily Sonia demurred from taking the PM post, and Sushma got to keep her hair. “I thank her (Gandhi) for honouring the sentiments of the people (for refusing the post),” she said. The frostiness between the two leaders, however, persisted for years afterwards. According to a Telegraph report, the ice between the two leaders broke only when Barack Obama came calling in 2010. But as the report pointed out, the thaw has been short-lived due to the arrival of the Modi government. Swaraj may have become closer to the Congress leadership while she was leader of opposition but with the BJP government refusing to engage with the opposition on any issue, there has been little scope for a detente. In this ’take no prisoners’ session of Parliament where the Congress has decided to use the Lalit Modi controversy to pummel the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, the External Affairs Minister has found herself having to fight her own battle with just words of support from the other party’s leaders. And while the party has backed her and ruled out her resignation so far, Swaraj knows better than anyone else that she’s not on as strong ground as she’s been on over the past decade. Given her predicament, it was hardly a surprise for Swaraj to go back to a familiar punching bag. When all else fails, pick on Sonia. It is exactly these kind of histrionics that shot Swaraj into the spotlight back in 2004. Surely, it makes sense to stick with the tried and tested. This time, however, the Congress party president has hit back. Is this the beginning of a new war of words or just a brief skirmish? It depends on how much trouble Sushma finds herself in over the days to come.