Congress president Sonia Gandhi will attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics on August 8. She will leave on August 6. While her daughter Priyanka Vadhera is set to give her company in Beijing, Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi is yet to confirm his participation.While details of her itinerary in China are still being worked out, official sources said, the Congress president is likely to meet the top leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) during her stay there. Her visit assumes significance as it comes after the IAEA Board of Governors’ approval of the India-specific safeguards agreement on Friday. There was apprehension in South Block about China’s stance at the IAEA meet. The Congress president will be in China barely a fortnight before the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) meets on August 21 to consider a waiver for India before the Indo-US nuclear deal is taken up for consideration by the US Congress. China’s stance at the NSG meet will again be crucial for the fate of the deal.In what is apparently a reflection of the importance the ruling Congress leadership has attached to China, Sonia will be visiting the Communist country a second time in the past nine months, which incidentally also marks a period of deterioration of the Congress-Left relationship back home. Overall, it will be Sonia’s fourth visit to China, the first being in December 1988 when she had accompanied her husband Rajiv Gandhi and then in 1996. In a gesture reflecting growing warmth on the part of the CPC towards the ruling party in India — notwithstanding the CPC’s close relationship with the Indian Left — the Communist country chose to invite the UPA chairperson to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, even as it invited the heads of state of other countries. In October 2007, Rahul had accompanied Sonia on a five-day visit to China. Last May, a high-level CPC delegation had called on the Congress president in Delhi with a proposal to hold a conference in Beijing to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to China. The delegation had invited Rahul to inaugurate the conference to be held towards yearend. Congress sources said the young scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family was keen on attending the conference but he had not confirmed it yet because of the fact that there would be elections in four states around that time. Sports Minister M S Gill and Petroleum Minister Murli Deora are among the other Indian dignitaries preparing to attend the opening ceremony.
