No bigger role for Rahul for now: Digvijay
31 July 2012 6:43 AM IST
While the media is abuzz with news that the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will either join the union cabinet or assume a more active role in the party, his political mentor Digvijay Singh has said he will do none of them and rather concentrate on the 2014 General Election.
In an exclusive interview to Millennium Post, the senior Congress leader said, 'I feel that Rahul Gandhi will be able to contribute more in the organisation for the Congress' preparation for the 2014 election rather than he confining himself to one portfolio in the government. Eighteen months is too short a time for any minister to show results, and anyway the decisions made in the last six months of a government's tenure are deemed populist.'
However, he did not commit on if Gandhi would be declared the prime ministerial candidate of the party in next parliamentary election. He said, 'As for him being appointed the prime ministerial candidate of the Congress, the final call will be taken by the party leadership.'
Last week, 10 Congress members of Parliament had written to the party president Sonia Gandhi, asking her to appoint Rahul as the leader of the Lok Sabha, which many observers saw as preparation for the Congress giving a bigger role to Rahul. But, Singh did not think much of the exercise. He said, 'I really don't know anything about the MPs' letter asking for him to be made the leader of the Lok Sabha.'
Singh also spoke about other challenges facing the party and the United Progressive Alliance government. Commenting on the anti-corruption agitation being carried out by Team Anna in the capital, he said, 'Anna's movement is more political than [it is] against corruption, and the so-called civil society, which they claim to represent, wants to bypass the political process to achieve its goal. In a democracy can Parliament be bypassed and can the laws be framed as per the diktats of a group of self-appointed custodians of people’s interests? Therefore, people have started realising the real intent of this so-called Team Anna, which wants to dictate to the duly-elected Parliament of this country through coercive methods of street agitations and clever media campaigns.'
About his party leaders meeting Anna Hazare secretly, while the Congress publicly slammed the agitation, he said, 'If it is so, it has been made public by Salman Khurshid himself. He has come out openly on that. There is total transparency from our side on the issue.'
In an exclusive interview to Millennium Post, the senior Congress leader said, 'I feel that Rahul Gandhi will be able to contribute more in the organisation for the Congress' preparation for the 2014 election rather than he confining himself to one portfolio in the government. Eighteen months is too short a time for any minister to show results, and anyway the decisions made in the last six months of a government's tenure are deemed populist.'
However, he did not commit on if Gandhi would be declared the prime ministerial candidate of the party in next parliamentary election. He said, 'As for him being appointed the prime ministerial candidate of the Congress, the final call will be taken by the party leadership.'
Last week, 10 Congress members of Parliament had written to the party president Sonia Gandhi, asking her to appoint Rahul as the leader of the Lok Sabha, which many observers saw as preparation for the Congress giving a bigger role to Rahul. But, Singh did not think much of the exercise. He said, 'I really don't know anything about the MPs' letter asking for him to be made the leader of the Lok Sabha.'
Singh also spoke about other challenges facing the party and the United Progressive Alliance government. Commenting on the anti-corruption agitation being carried out by Team Anna in the capital, he said, 'Anna's movement is more political than [it is] against corruption, and the so-called civil society, which they claim to represent, wants to bypass the political process to achieve its goal. In a democracy can Parliament be bypassed and can the laws be framed as per the diktats of a group of self-appointed custodians of people’s interests? Therefore, people have started realising the real intent of this so-called Team Anna, which wants to dictate to the duly-elected Parliament of this country through coercive methods of street agitations and clever media campaigns.'
About his party leaders meeting Anna Hazare secretly, while the Congress publicly slammed the agitation, he said, 'If it is so, it has been made public by Salman Khurshid himself. He has come out openly on that. There is total transparency from our side on the issue.'
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