Kapil Sibal in defence of Cong

Congress president Sonia Gandhi was impressed by the legal acumen of the famed defence counsel Kapil Sibal. When the Congress is faced with a string of scams and virtually defenceless, Sonia Gandhi handpicked Kapil Sibal to be the Law Minister. At a time when the BJP is convincingly projecting the Congress as on the downhill and the saffron party as the natural beneficiary, Sibal came up with an impregnable defence for the Congress. In 11 State Assembly elections during the past two years, the Congress increased its strength by 60 more Assembly seats, while the BJP lost as many as 90 seats. "Who is on the downhill? Ask the BJP," was the witty response of Sibal.

Perception counts and the party became sensitive to perception. The Congress is trying to wage the unpopular battle perception. Coal blocks allocation did not see the sale any coal, but the loss was pegged at an astronomical Rs 1.76 lakh crore. A government, which has historic achievements to its credit, was shamed in the media on the basis of presumptive and not actual loss. The Vajpayee Government, which caused enormous real time loss to exchequer because of the migration from fixed licence fee to revenue-sharing arrangement, managed to get away unscathed with its Teflon image.