Congress President Sonia Gandhi, allegedly blasted former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor at a meeting of lawmakers after his views against stalling Parliament, a key Opposition strategy during the monsoon session, were leaked in the media. "You always do this, it's become a habit with you," Gandhi is said to have told Tharoor. Gandhi's son and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi eased the situation by ushering out other Congress leaders to lighten the moment.

"Gandhi, who generally does not get angry, literally blasted Tharoor," an unnamed source told. The party chief was in no mood to listen to any explanation from Tharoor. Not everyone in the Opposition is in favour of disruption of Parliament.

Congress MP in Rajya Sabha, M S Gill, told, "I would like to see Parliament work. The country has many serious problems. The 130 crore people of the country have many grave problems. So, we need to discuss and decide something for them and solve their problems."

Young MPs want the party to make the most of the situation caused by the Lalit Modi controversy and the Vyapam scam to put the government in the dock. Rahul was himself not against "disruption tactics", at least for the first week of the monsoon session till the Congress reviewed its strategy for next week.

Shashi Tharoor had said that the disruption tactics are a repeat of what the BJP had done when it was in the opposition, which may not be effective now. He gave the reasons as that the strength of the Congress is just 44, while the BJP had 110-plus members when it was in the opposition during the last Lok Sabha.

Congress is not leaving any stone unturned to corner the government over the various scams involving top BJP leaders. The Congress has been demanding for the resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and the chief ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh over Lalitgate and Vyapam.

By Premji