Saturday, January 28 2006 20:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: In remarks seen as unusual, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)today (Jan 28,2006)said the recent All India Congress Committee (AICC) session in Hyderabad witnessed a 'remarkable confidence, direction and brazenness that was missing in the party for almost two decades' and that there was a 'newfound sprint in the party's gait'.

"The Hyderabad AICC was significant in many ways. It had the usual pomp and glitter of such shows attached to any ruling party jamboree, but there was a remarkable confidence, direction and brazenness that was missing in the party for almost two decades, since that Mumbai centenary plenary in the Congress honeymoon days with Rajiv Gandhi", said a tongue-in-cheek editorial in the latest issue of RSS mouthpiece 'Organiser'.

"Sonia Gandhi has effectively stepped into her husband's shoes in Hyderabad. Reminiscent of the Mumbai call to eschew the power-brokers seeped into the system, Sonia Gandhi's stern chiding of the culture of sycophancy in the party has taken everybody by surprise", it said but added that the party always been a 'balance between power-brokering and sycophancy'.

"More significant is the newfound sprint in its gait. The party is eager and ready to reclaim its lost territories. The AICC has rightly emphasised that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a parasite on its decaying trunk. Be it the Left in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, the Nationalist Congress in Maharashtra, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar or the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in Andhra, the partners are eating into its vital space.

"The party can do well without them. And they are proving heavy millstones around its neck. Hence the call to seek to return to power at the Centre on its own", it said.