After warning that he was running out of patience as the Congress High Command was ignoring him,Kadapa MP Y S Jaganmohan Reddys television channel Sakshi TV attacked Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an hour-long special programme aired Friday night. The Sakshi programme blamed Sonia Gandhi for the sorry state of affairs in Congress and called the Prime Minister a rubber stamp. Jaganmohan who has taken a break from his consolation tours of the districts did not make any comments in the programme but a voice-over in Telugu made scathing remarks against the Congress party and Sonia Gandhi. For several weeks,the 24-hour Telugu news channel and Telugu daily Sakshi have been reporting about Jaganmohans Odarpu Yatra and have published articles criticising Chief Minister K Rosaiah. But its the first time that his channel has taken Sonia Gandhi head on. Political observers feel that this could possibly be Jaganmohans parting shot before he quits the Congress to form his own party. The special programme on Sakshi television was telecast to mark the 125th anniversary celebrations of the Congress party. Sonia Gandhi is neither the President nor the Prime Minister but she is dictating the politics of the country. There is a coterie around Sonia which is responsible for the mess in the Congress, the programme said. Calling Prime Minister Singh a rubber stamp, Sakshi said the PM remained a mute witness even as the 2G spectrum scandal surfaced and cited Supreme Courts observations. The channel blamed Sonia Gandhis shortsightedness and leadership for the decline and degeneration of the party. Targeting her foreign origin,the programme also made a reference to the Bofors scandal and her links with Ottavio Quattrochi. The programme showed clippings of Sonia Gandhis public addresses and claimed that Sonia Gandhi is even losing her popularity in her own Rae Bareily constituency. Sonia Gandhi is not a good orator and cannot address a gathering in fluent Hindi. Under her leadership and UPA government,several scandals and scams have occurred which have become a noose around the Congress neck. The party high command maintains a stoic silence on all these schemes because the situation is going out of hand, it said. Sonia Gandhis political secretary Ahmed Patel was singled out in the programme. The report said Patel was the leader of the coterie around Sonia Gandhi. Ahmed Patel himself has no political base. He is a native of Gujarat where the Congress has totally been wiped out, the report said. The programme shocked Congress leaders and drew sharp reactions. Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member V Hanumantha Rao said that since Jaganmohan was denied the CMs post after his fathers death,he has now become desperate. He wants to become CM by hook or crook. His father Rajasekhara Reddy was a great leader and remained loyal to the Congress high command. Due to his fathers great name,Jaganmohan has been getting away with everything easily. But enough is enough. His audacity to target Sonia Gandhi like this cannot be tolerated anymore. We will expose him, Rao said.
