Rahul’s ordinance bomb shakes govt
28 Sept 2013 5:53 AM IST
In a clever move clearly targeted at outsmarting his political adversaries, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the government’s decision to bring an ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers was ‘non-sense’. Observing that no compromise should be made to fight corruption, he said the ordinance needs to be thrown away.
Gandhi made the observations while intervening in a ‘meet the press’ programme organised by the Press Club of India for head of the media department of the Congress party Ajay Maken. Arriving unannounced at the function, Gandhi made a crisp comment indicting the government at the Centre for ‘compromising’ on the vital issue of corruption.
After reiterating his position, Gandhi left the venue without entertaining any questions from the mediapersons, leaving them to draw their respective conjecture as to what went into making the party change its stand on the matter, which till a few minutes earlier was being defended by Maken and also by senior ministers like P Chidambaram. After Gandhi’s comments, Maken said the party is opposed to the ordinance. Maken said the party’s view will be supreme.
Within a few hours, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, currently on a visit to the United States, told the accompanying journalist that the government would take a fresh view on the matter. ‘The ordinance cleared by the cabinet pertaining to the Representation of the People Act has been a matter of much public debate. The Congress vice-president has also written to me on the issue and also made a statement. The government is seized of all these developments. The issues raised will be considered on my return to India after due deliberations in the cabinet,’ Manmohan Singh said in Washington ahead of his summit meeting with President Barack Obama in response to the controversy created by Rahul Gandhi’s statement.
The developments came a day after President Pranab Mukherjee summoned senior cabinet ministers Sushilkumar Shinde, Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal for consultations on the ordinance pending before him for signature. The ministers were summoned by the President after a three-member BJP delegation had a meeting with him and submitted a memorandum requesting him not to sign the ordinance.
The move also drew criticism from Gandhi’s political rivals with Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley saying that those responsible in the government for the ordinance should resign following their leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the move. According to reports, prime minister’s former media adviser Sanjaya Baru said Gandhi’s statement was ‘insulting’ for the prime minister, who should cancel his meetings in US and return immediately and resign from his position.
Gandhi made the observations while intervening in a ‘meet the press’ programme organised by the Press Club of India for head of the media department of the Congress party Ajay Maken. Arriving unannounced at the function, Gandhi made a crisp comment indicting the government at the Centre for ‘compromising’ on the vital issue of corruption.
After reiterating his position, Gandhi left the venue without entertaining any questions from the mediapersons, leaving them to draw their respective conjecture as to what went into making the party change its stand on the matter, which till a few minutes earlier was being defended by Maken and also by senior ministers like P Chidambaram. After Gandhi’s comments, Maken said the party is opposed to the ordinance. Maken said the party’s view will be supreme.
Within a few hours, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, currently on a visit to the United States, told the accompanying journalist that the government would take a fresh view on the matter. ‘The ordinance cleared by the cabinet pertaining to the Representation of the People Act has been a matter of much public debate. The Congress vice-president has also written to me on the issue and also made a statement. The government is seized of all these developments. The issues raised will be considered on my return to India after due deliberations in the cabinet,’ Manmohan Singh said in Washington ahead of his summit meeting with President Barack Obama in response to the controversy created by Rahul Gandhi’s statement.
The developments came a day after President Pranab Mukherjee summoned senior cabinet ministers Sushilkumar Shinde, Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal for consultations on the ordinance pending before him for signature. The ministers were summoned by the President after a three-member BJP delegation had a meeting with him and submitted a memorandum requesting him not to sign the ordinance.
The move also drew criticism from Gandhi’s political rivals with Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley saying that those responsible in the government for the ordinance should resign following their leader Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of the move. According to reports, prime minister’s former media adviser Sanjaya Baru said Gandhi’s statement was ‘insulting’ for the prime minister, who should cancel his meetings in US and return immediately and resign from his position.
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