Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi, July 21: Sonia Gandhi often bristled as she sat restless and intense through the confidence debate in the Lok Sabha today.

Dressed in an off-white cotton sari, the Congress president protested, gesticulated, whispered or shook her head vigorously every time a BJP or Left member made what appeared to her an unreasonable point.

She made no formal speech and never got up to interrupt, but her intense involvement left little doubt about her complete support to the nuclear deal and the Prime Minister.

The UPA chairperson enthusiastically thumped the desk when Manmohan Singh moved the confidence motion with a brief but powerful speech, but her expression turned grim as soon as the leader of the Opposition began to speak.

L.K. Advani’s accusation that the UPA-Left common minimum programme doesn’t mention strategic relations with the US went unchallenged by the treasury benches but Sonia voiced her protest. “It is there,” she said emphatically.

She frowned and made disapproving gestures as the BJP’s shadow Prime Minister reeled out one charge after another. When Advani recalled that Manmohan Singh had said he could not move ahead with the deal without a broad national consensus and accused him of forgetting his promise, Sonia muttered: “That’s what we are doing.”

Advani then accused the Prime Minister of ignoring Parliament, prompting Sonia to assert loudly: “That’s precisely what we are doing.”

The Congress president, visibly uncomfortable at the allegations, constantly spoke to party colleagues sitting close to her.

Although she didn’t exchange any words with Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar who sat on her right, she kept whispering to Shivraj Patil, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Anand Sharma and Pranab Mukherjee whenever she disagreed with a point made by a speaker. She was involved in animated conversations with Pranab almost every 10 minutes.

When the CPM’s Mohammad Salim attacked the Prime Minister for what he termed “betrayal of the Left”, Sonia explicitly showed her disappointment. She threw up her hands in dismay when Salim thundered: “We want leaders, not dealers.”

Her son Rahul, though, sat with a deadpan face while Somnath Chatterjee appeared unperturbed by the row triggered by his party over his continuance as Lok Sabha Speaker.

He was his usual self — confident and assertive — merrily delivering his stock dialogues like “You can’t hold the House to ransom” and “I will take action against you”.

As is his wont, at one point he expressed his helplessness too: “They don’t listen. What can I do? Should I go and strangle them?”

Somnath’s carefree performance was being watched by Prakash Karat’s better half, Brinda, from the visitors’ gallery, where the Speaker’s wife and daughter too sat. Also seated there were two former Speakers, P.A. Sangma and Manohar Joshi, both of whom praised Somnath’s courage after they came out.

Others who watched the proceedings from the gallery included Mulayam Singh Yadav, D. Raja, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Debabrata Biswas and Balbir Punj.

The proceedings saw both rancour and banter. If Lalu Prasad threatened to unleash a “Mahabharat” inside the House, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party members nearly came to blows over allegations of MPs being bought.

The second half, especially, saw continuous turmoil when lower-profile MPs spoke, focusing more on the personal than political.