UPA allies are miffed over the Union Cabinet’s decision to withdraw the Ordinance on convicted lawmakers under pressure from Congress heir apparent Rahul Gandhi.
The BJP also attacked Manmohan Singh for lowering the status of the Prime Minister’s office by being overruled by a leader who is half his age. The BJP’s attack was on expected lines, but the positioning by National Conference and Nationalist Congress Party, must have surprised even the Congress. Even Samajwadi Party, which provides outside support to the Congress, opposed the withdrawal of the Ordinance.
National Conference chief and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah said Rahul Gandhi was “advised wrongly” and that he should have spoken on the issue after the Prime Minister’s return to the country from the US. “I think someone must have advised him on this. I think, they advised him wrongly. While the PM was out, he should have waited for him to come back, and then put his point of view directly. That would have been the right way. I hope there will be better advisers in future and he will consult other UPA constituents, find better ways of taking things forward,” Abdullah said before the Cabinet meeting.
later, he said that he would not do a post-mortem. “It was a Cabinet decision then. It is a Cabinet decision now,” Abdullah said after the Cabinet meeting. NCP leader and Minister of State for Agriculture Tariq Anwar said that had any other person other than Rahul Gandhi raised this matter in the Congress, he would have, perhaps, not been forgiven. “Perhaps this is the reason. A special Cabinet meeting has been called. All issues will be discussed,” he said hours before the announcement about withdrawal of the Ordinance.
Around the same time, the SP also blasted the Government for backing out of a “well-thought-out” decision that has given a signal that “one individual” is bigger than the Government.” “Samajwadi Party requests the Prime Minister that he should remain firm on the Ordinance that the Government has brought. It should remain firm on it as it was brought after due consideration. This message should not go down in the country that it was withdrawn under the pressure of one individual,” SP’s Rajya Sabha member Naresh Agrawal said.
“Politicians will fight for the people and then they will be debarred from contesting elections if they are held guilty. Then how will we workIJ This is a conspiracy against democracy. If the Ordinance is withdrawn, it will be proved that one individual is bigger in the country and not the Government.” Agrawal said. He also rued that after Gandhi’s attack on the Ordinance, the Prime Minister’s stature stands undermined.
The BJP also taunted Singh saying when a leader half the age of the PM overrules him, his status is diminished. “The PM should be a natural leader of his party. He should listen to all opinions but finally take his own decision,” leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said here. Jaitley claimed the Ordinance should have been withdrawn for three principle reasons - it was immoral, the matter is before the Standing Committee of Parliament and the aim of the Ordinance is constitutionally questionable.
“It would have been good for Indian democracy if the Ordinance was withdrawn for these reasons. But, it is being rolled back because one member of the family wants so. It proves that dynasty prevails over the UPA Government,” Jaitley argued. Addressing young professionals at party headquarters here, Jaitley described Singh as a ‘weak’ PM who should be replaced with a decisive leader. He also took a dig at the PM for asking all secular forces to unite against Narendra Modi, saying it shows that he is apprehensive and feels the challenge posed by the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.
He instead asked all political parties which are against corruption to join hands with the BJP. “Those who go with the Congress will sink with a party that is going down,” he said. Claiming that an apprehensive Singh could sense the challenge from Modi, Jaitley argued that the 2014 lok Sabha elections will not be based on “arithmetic” - pre-poll analysis of which party is likely to get how many seats - but about the “changed chemistry on the ground” after Modi’s projection.