NEW DELHI, January 29: In an embarrassment of sorts, Congress president Sitaram Kesri today played host to a thinly-attended iftaar party. Even the party's star campaigner Sonia Gandhi left after seven minutes.An iftaar is not the best indicator of a party's popularity but even then the Congress has a lot to ponder about. Apart from a few Muslim clerics, no one else was there. The party was hoping to attract more people after its apologies for the Babri Masjid demolition and the anti-Sikh riots that followed Operation Bluestar.
Sonia had half-a-glass of orange juice, listened to Kesri for about five minutes and left. As she was leaving, one correspondent said the BJP was accusing her of being afraid of meeting the Press. "I am not," she half turned and said. That was it.
Minutes later, the people present gulped down the food and left. At best, there were a couple of hundred people and maybe 15 per cent of them were Muslims.
Senior Congress leaders said it was perhaps the worst-attendedIftaar in recent times. CWC members Pranab Mukherjee, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Madhavrao Scindia, Jitendra Prasada and AK Antony were present even as a majority of the leaders were away.
However, Kesri stayed back after Sonia left and thus narrowly escaped from committing a social gaffe. Vice-President Krishan kant was a late guest and luckily for him, Kesri was at hand to play host.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
