Says party command will be obeyed
Ahead of the crucial AICC meeting on Friday, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi indicated that he was not “reluctant” to lead the party as its prime ministerial candidate in the upcoming lok Sabha polls.
In an interview to a Hindi daily, Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP of proliferating divisive politics, and charged the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with hijacking ideas already being implemented by the Congress in the political domain of the country for a long time.
“I am a sepoy of the Congress. I will obey whatever order is given to me. I will do whatever the Congress wants me to do... Decisions in our party are taken by senior leaders,” Rahul Gandhi said on a query about taking up the responsibility of being the PM candidate of the Congress.
On the perception that he was reluctant to take up such a big challenge, Rahul said there was no word like reluctance in his life. “Earlier also some decisions were taken...Power is poison ...but, that does not mean that I am not keen to take responsibility. There is no word like reluctance in my life. Whatever task the Congress wanted me to accomplish, I have done that,” Rahul
Gandhi said in interview to Dainik Bhaskar.
To a direct question on whether he will accept any such responsibility, Gandhi said: “None of my family members ever worked for the sake of power. Neither my father (Rajiv Gandhi) nor my grandmother (Indira Gandhi).”
Making a strong case for the return of Congress to power at the Centre, the party’s second-in-command said that it was in the interest of the nation.
“It is necessary for Congress to come back to power in the interest of the nation and for that whatever responsibility the organisation has given me or will give me, I will carry out with full dedication,” he said.
Setting at rest speculations that Priyanka Gandhi would be playing an active role in politics, Rahul sought to make it clear that his sister would not have any electoral role and that she was just helping him.
Slamming the BJP for its “Congress-free India” campaign, the Congress scion said the country should not be governed according to the thinking of a particular person and his ways. “BJP today wants a personality-oriented rule, which is not in the interest of the country. The future of 120-crore people can be shaped up and improved only by taking everybody along,” he said maintaining that the “Congress is in the DNA of this country.”
On the emergence of AAP, Gandhi, who had earlier said that his party would “learn” from them, flagged up his “differences” with Arvind Kerjiwal’s party on some issues. “The Congress is a strong and active party. Congress changed the shape of politics in the country earlier and will do so in future as well.
We have been raising these issues since I came into politics. Some of these things have been implemented by the AAP. But our ways are different. I am not in agreement with many of their ways. Our decisions should be keeping in mind the secure future of the people rather than their short-term gains,” he said.
While Gandhi hoped that the upcoming elections would be exciting and the Congress will do well, he maintained that the party was always assessed poorly, like in the 2004 and 2009 lok Sabha polls. Gandhi also disagreed with a contention that allies were leaving the Congress. He referred to the party’s alliances in various States and said talks were going on for alliances in Bihar and elsewhere. He, however, declined to be categorical when asked whether the Congress will ally with the RJD.
Union Minister Manish Tewari, who had coordinated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s rare Press conference early this month in which Singh announced that he would hand over the baton to a new PM after the General Elections, reiterated that party men now wanted to contest the upcoming lok Sabha elections under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership.