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Sonia Gandhi’s refusal to touch the famous Bengali delicacy, the hilsa fish, at Somnath Chatterjee’s dinner last week has sent shivers down the collective spines of Congress and Left leaders.

Knowing Gandhi’s particular fondness for hilsa, Chatterjee had gone through enormous effort and expense to have it prepared for her, even though this is not quite the right season.

But she froze his proud smile with a stony look and declined to eat it. In Bengal, that’s almost an insult. And given the context, it’s being interpreted as a deliberate snub to the Left.

Minutes before dinner was served, Chatterjee had made the mistake of raking up the recent fracas between the CPI(M) and the Congress over dismissing the Mulayam Singh government.

He meant well, of course, expressing satisfaction that the matter had ended amicably for all concerned. Gandhi snapped her head up and plunged in the knife with a caustic rebuke about allowing the Mafia to rule in UP.

There was shocked silence for a few seconds and after that, it was downhill. When she said no to the hilsa, the dinner turned into a pretty miserable affair with Gandhi picking at her food and Chatterjee unable to muster up the aplomb to play perfect host. It looks like a serious rupture has developed in the Gandhi-Left relationship over Singh. Are these ominous portents for the remaining tenure of the Left-supported UPA government?

Contrast this to her first encounter with Chatterjee’s hilsa diplomacy. The bony fish with a pungent smell and delicate flavour was the prized dish at his dinner for ruling alliance leaders shortly after the UPA government was formed. Ironically, Mulayam Singh was present in person on that occasion.

But those were early days, when the glow of ousting the BJP had not quite faded. So when Singh sniggered a warning to Gandhi about the bones in the fish, she responded graciously and informed him that she knew how to separate them from the flesh, thank you.

The guests were surprised to see her take a generous helping of hilsa. Since then, Chatterjee always made it a point to include the fish on his menu when he invited Gandhi.

In a city where every move, every gesture is believed to be replete with political symbolism, much significance is being attached to Gandhi’s brush off to Chatterjee’s hilsa diplomacy. More than anything else, it’s seen to be a major blow to his presidential prospects.

It’s said that the Lok Sabha Speaker nurses secret hopes of moving into Rashtrapati Bhavan when President Abdul Kalam’s tenure ends this June. Hilsa was the piece d’resistance of the Somnath-for-President campaign, launched in earnest last week.

First, a group of senior editors were treated to it, followed by NDA leaders and finally, the Congress top brass. Being unseasonal, hilsa prices go as high as Rs600 per kg these days.

But Chatterjee roped in a ritzy restaurant that’s rapidly gaining fame for its Bengali cuisine to do the catering for him. Looks like his efforts may have boomeranged.

There’s a telling irony in the unexpected fall of Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s government in the week gone by. Just a few days before he resigned, he was in India, discussing with Gandhi the perils of running a coalition government.

She agreed heartily with him and he suggested that they exchange experiences and ideas. Well, he’s gone now but the UPA survives. Maybe Prodi should have tapped Gandhi for help earlier.

Email: a_jerath@dnaindia.net