Reading reports of Sonia Gandhi speech when she handed responsibility for the Congress to Rahal, I was reminded of the Courage she had shown by accepting the presidency and on the rocky road to victory six years later. I many other Journalists failed to reconciling Sonia's inner strength and we may be doing the same in our disparaging coverage of her son. At last weekend's ceremony, Sonia admitted how formidable the first obstacle the needed to overcome had been - her inexperience and lack of self-confidence. Describing how she felt when accepting the presidency she said;" I was so nervous my hands were shaking. I could not think how I would manage to take charge of this historic organization. It was a formidable and onerous task. The task was on its back. It had The Congress was on its back, It had fewer seats in the Lok Sabha than ever before and was only in power in four states. Internecine war reged in teh Party. The BJP was taunting her mercilessly about her foreign origin. So there was Sonia politically inexperienced, nervous and lacking self-confidence, an woman in a man's world, captaining a leaking ship with rats already leaving. Yet she plugged the leaks and sailed to victory. During that voyage I never gave Sonia credit for the enormous courage she was sympathy. During the years Sonia was rescuing Congress, and indeed the 10 years she was back seat-driving the UPA government , she remained a remarkably private public person. Journalists' access to her was strictly limited to a privileged few. She didn't go in for press conferences on interviews. WE journalists don't like being ignored . I was so out of sympathy with Sonia during the years she lead Congress in Opposition that when I watched her at ralles I would often think," she has no place in Indian Ghandhi imitation hand-wave and her stilted reading of prepared speeches," Compared with a veteran like her rival AB Vajpayee she seemed unreal. The Circumstances in which Rahul has become Congress president bear an uncanny resemblance to the circumstances when Sonia became president. The Congress is in the doldrums. It was routed in the last general elections since. In 1998, the BJP was rising , now it's on a roll. There have been prominent desertions from the Congress, Rahul like his mother has only has only been elected because he is a member of the Nehru-Ghandhi dynasty. LIke her too he has made little or no effort to make friends with the press and we have shown no sign of respecting his courage in persevering in spite of the setbacks he has suffered. IN the Gujar at election, he has shown the stamina we thought he lacked. The improvement in the delivery as well as the content of his speeches has been recognized . He has stood up to Narendra Modi. The result is a glimmer of light at the end of the long dark tunnel the Congress is passing through, so may be we the Press are underestimating Rahul as we underestimated Sonia.