IN the old classical language - Sanskrit - the good old Hindus would call it the Stree Shakti Vajra - the lightning of the female force. But in step with the Western mythology it could be the rage of the female furies - the forces of wrath. That is the only way the attacks on Sonia Gandhi coming from Uma Bharati and Sushma Swaraj - one posing as the "Indian" and the other as "Self Rule", can be interpreted by the political mystics and mythologists. The engry females crossed all limits of feminine delicacy and propriety while bowling googlies on a dry and hot political pitch. One threatened to shave off her head and not to enter the Parliament House as long as Sonia Gandhi was the Prime Minister. The other, not to be outdone by the other BJP fury, decided to give up her chief ministership of Madhya pradesh and launch a "Foreigner Sonia" campaign all over the country and observe the day of Sonia’s swearing in as Prime Minister as the "Black Day"? But Sonia saved both the angry women, one was spared a close shave and the other her favourite seat of chief ministership in Bhopal. Many questioned why did not these Wise Women of Saffronia accept calling Sonia "Madam" when she was an elected leader of the Opposition in Parliament? Why did she suddenly become a foreigner when the people of India gave her the mandate to replace the NDA at the Centre? Anyway, she gave these angry women to save their fiery breath by simply declining to be the Prime Minister. Now a new controversy has been given birth by the Sushma-Uma Bhairavi. One question being asked was that even if women were given a 33 per cent reservation in Parliament, women will not come out with the character of an integrated feminine force. None would ever know what might come out of the "womb of such political women" - tolerance, kindness, decency, patience, compassion or black politics and black days? Let the time tell its own story, said a wise woman who belongs neither to BJP nor to Congress.

THE Outlook story: Who after George, Madhvan or Pillai, stood corrected when the two assistant private secretaries of Sonia Gandhi stayed where they were and Vincent George, who remained the boss when he was not seen at 10 Janpath but remained in control through remote control, was back in the open, showing his magic hand to turn the so called feel-good of the BJP into a feel-bad depression. He was there at the back of every event and move which showed that Congress was in full grip of the nation’s pulse and needs. Sonia showed great farsight by bringing her old faithful in the centre of the happenings with many of his admirers also being heard saying: George Jaisa Koi Nahin

JANAKI Ballabh Patnaik, who hoped to loom large as a Congress Hercules in Kalinga - the modern state of Orissa - was floored by the verdict of the recent assembly polls in the State. His was the greatest loss in many ways.His entire dynasty were losers, including his wife and son-in-law. Girdhar Gomango, whose political house he tried to break into, trying to fan even marital discord on political grounds in the Gomango family, snaked in towards Delhi in anger. Remember it was the same Gomango whose single vote brought the Government down at another time. In this battle of Kalinga, JB Patnaik was floored on all counts and lost money, goodwill and credibilitiy -- all the three ingredients which constitute the arteries of power politics. Poor Patnaik!

WITH all the political high drama seen in Delhi and Lucknow, the question doing the rounds in the Samajwadi Party corridors and outside: Amar Singh Ko Ghussa Kyon Aataa Hai. The great wheeler dealer and adviser to the SP Supremo Mulayam Singh first created the magic feel-good that SP was BJP’s favourite new-found friend, then he saw the feel-good became feel-bad. Then he created the impression that Mulayam's Muslim constituency was formidable and invincible forever. But he saw the Muslim vote slip back to the Congress in the Malpra citadel of Uttar Pradesh in Lok Sabha election. Then all his strategies to deprive Maya of the Dalit support via the other backward classes inside and outside the BJP vanished into thin air, showing more confusion than convincing success.

It was said that the king-maker role script, written for the SP Supremo by Amar Singh with the help of Comrade Harkishen Singh Surjeeet of the CPl(M), had gone a flop. So much so that Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh were even not invited to the dinner hosted for the secular party leaders by Sonia Gandhi. However, Amar Singh gatecrashed the party with Surjeet’s help. With the SP not even being able to touch the 40 figure, Mayawati bagging 19 seats, Congress scoring nine and the BJP flopping too, the Mulayam reign itself in Uttar Pradesh seemed to be rooking. In fact, some of the United Progessive Alliance (UPA) supporters began to tell the Samajwadi wheeler dealer: Who asked for your support anyway? But Amar Singh was Amar Singh. When kings were being made and unmade and king-makers were in great distress, he made a beeline for Mumbai. Will his next constituency be Bolloywood with a new and real film script?

BY telling all on the Indian political scenario, "I do not want to be the Prime Minister", Sonia Gandhi kept all friends and foes on tenterhooks, till she finally announced that Manmohan Singh as the Congress choice for the exalted prime ministerial post. It was not like the last time when she had rushed to the Rashtrpati Bhawan to stake claim. Everyone tried to guess the reasons why Sonia was so different this time. Many of her ardent supporters said it was so because Sonia had emerged the most experienced and the most self-sacrificing practitioner of statesmanship in the country. Others attrituted her decision to her fury at the graceless personal campaign launched against her "by low-think and loudmouth leaders of BJP like Sushma, Uma and Govindacharya on the score of her foreign origin. But the fact remained that she had knocked the bottom of the BJP street politics and emotional blackmail of the people of India. By her matserly strategy, unprecedented sacrifice and rock-like power of conviction, she had emerged as the tallest of contemporary Indian laeders and another Indira Gandhi in the country. Many of her women supporters were heard saying Sonia Jaisi Koi Nahin.