By Amba Charan Vashishth

Watching the IPL cricket matches is a double pleasure: One, you witness magnificent fours and sixes as also brilliant bowling and equally enchanting catches. Two, one also enjoys the spectacle of cheerleaders shaking their hips and fronts in ecstasy. They celebrate the striking of a century with as much mirth and glee as they do when a player is out for a duck and returns to the pavilion.

If one were to go by what hint the Congress Yuvraj Rahul Gandhi gave in his press conference on May 5, it seems the Congress to is preparing itself to act as a cheerleader on May 16 when the referee (Election Commission) of our Indian Election League will start declaring which of our candidates belonging to which party has scored a century and which of them is out for a duck. Congress seems to be deciding to act in the true sportsman (political) spirit to cheer with the beat of a drum and dance whoever wins, even if he/she defeat its party candidate.

Mr. Raul Gandhi that day cheered Telgu Desam Party chief Mr. Chandrababu Naidu against whom his party is fighting a battle for survival in Andhra Pradesh, that very Mr. Naidu against whom the Congress had all the invectives reserved for him during the election campaign.

Mr. Gandhi showered great encomiums on Bihar chief minister Mr. Nitish Kumar who, during electioneering, had been dubbed by Congress for having failed Bihar and Congress campaigned for deliverance from him and his party.

One need not crave one's memory (Mr. Gandhi too is not doing that) to recall what  foul language Congress had all along been using against Miss J. Jayalalitha since Congress entered into a marriage of political convenience with her arch rival DMK five years back.  Now Congress is sending flirtatious messages for its intention for another political wedlock with its own and Mr. Karunanidhi's sworn political foe without having as yet divorced DMK.