March 23: The Omnipotent First Family is expected to have several supernatural powers to run the Grand Old Party. Omnipresence has now joined the list.
Rahul Gandhi, the leader on leave, has been sighted at the same time in places separated by oceans and continents.
The latest sighting has been in Uruguay, according to political sources who have been forced to take up pursuits that so long have been the preserve of ornithologists.
However, no natural history museum - or political hall of fame, for that matter - is going to accept claims of the rare catch without photographic evidence.
Challenged, one political source who had cited Uruguay sought to justify his claim by pointing to a feeble, if not outright tenuous, historical link. He referred to the wave of Italian immigration to Uruguay in the 19th century.
Such circumstantial evidence has come under stress because a former chief minister insists that he spotted Rahul a few days ago getting into a Special Protection Group cavalcade at Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.
Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Greece and half-a-dozen European destinations have in the past three weeks been named as possible hideouts being used by Rahul.
But with the first phase of the budget session concluding without Rahul making his presence felt, some loyal Congressmen have begun to wonder if he has taken the mickey out of everyone by staying put in his bedroom at 12 Tughlaq Crescent (his official residence in Lutyens Delhi) and playing video games when not drafting the revive-Congress report.
It's exactly a month since Sonia Gandhi, who has been hitting the streets and doing many other things expected of people as young as Rahul, had announced that her son had gone on leave. Although no one had spelled it out in as many words, word had gone around that Rahul would be back in three weeks.
Some Congressmen - definitely not carrying the label "loyal" - have begun to speculate whether Rahul is refusing to end his holiday - a syndrome not unknown to parents of school-going children.
Is he sulking? If so, over what? Are the mother and son at loggerheads over the way 24 Akbar Road, the Congress headquarters, should or shouldn't be functioning? These are some of the questions this group is asking, though not in such a direct manner.
Claims of a tussle between the old guard and the new breed do not have too many takers. The old guard draws its entire strength and legitimacy from Sonia and swears by the mantra: "Gandhi family ke liye saat jaan qurban, saat post qurban (for the sake of the Gandhi family, we are ready to sacrifice seven lives and seven posts)".
Party insiders pointed out that Rahul and Sonia had the powers to sack and reconstitute the Congress working committee at will. The terms of the CWC and AICC functionaries are over in any case.
Is it then something personal and more intriguing? Is Rahul contemplating settling down and is facing opposition from some quarters? Sonia supporters discount this, pointing out that the last arranged marriage in the First Family was between Jawaharlal Nehru and Kamala.
