While yesterday the party didn’t even get into the argument, confining its statements to the fact that the Sethusamudram project was launched under NDA rule, it was very different today. Congress sources said Sonia Gandhi started seeking views of senior party leaders this morning.

Ahmad Patel, Political Secretary to the Congress president, had presided over a meeting of AICC general secretaries last evening but they did not take up this issue. The leadership woke up only after state units began making desperate calls, seeking advice on what stand to take, even cautioning about the political damage this may cause.

Sonia Gandhi consulted the Prime Minister and senior party leaders this morning. By then the Government had dug into files to discover that ASI authorities had not cleared the controversial paragraphs. The same ideas, Congress sources pointed out, had figured in a paper on the Sethusamudram project, circulated among a section of MPs by a Ministry under a non-Congress UPA constituent.

The Congress leadership decided to issue a statement or hold a press conference to clarify how the controversial paragraphs had crept into the affidavit and how the Government could not be held responsible for it.

The Congress core group and leaders like Digvijay Singh and Mohsina Kidwai met at the PM’s residence to deliberate on the strategy to be adopted. The leaders felt that since the Law Minister was already doing damage-control, the Congress should refrain from going public on “sensitive” details as it could shift the blame on one of the UPA constituents, said sources.

... contd.