New Delhi: It is election season and many of those present at the HT Leadership summit in New Delhi were expecting a stump speech from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. And she didn’t disappoint and even going as far as to evoke memories of her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi. The context, not surprisingly, was the global financial crisis. “If you allow me the liberty of showing what is to you the proverbial ‘red rag to the bull’... Let me take you back to Indira Gandhi’s much reviled bank nationalization of 40 years ago... Every passing day bears out the wisdom of that decision” said Sonia Gandhi.

Click here to watch video

That remark obviously did not please the left.

The communists have gloated in an I-told-you-so attitude. They wouldn’t allow Sonia to steal their moment of perceived glory from right under their noses. The CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan said that the present government would have de-nationalized banks and given the management of the Provident Fund scheme to private entities, had it not been for them. “If that has not happened, it is because the left has opposed it, seen to it (that) it doesn’t take place. Blocked their way everytime. Have they the honesty to agree to that, to confess that?” said Bardhan.