Continuing his attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday said he should apologise to the countrymen for “insulting” the Prime Minister’s office over the Ordinance that seeks to protect convicted lawmakers.
“The comments made by Rahul Gandhi about the Ordinance is against the dignity of the PMO and amounts to an insult to the country’s self-respect. Therefore, he should apologise to the people of the nation,” Chouhan told reporters at Narsinghpur town before embarking on his ‘Janashirwad Yatra’.
The voice against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet was raised by the leader of their own party and therefore, the entire council of ministers should immediately step down, he said.
“By making such a statement, especially when the Prime Minister is taking part in important meetings in foreign countries, Rahul has lowered the country’s image in the eyes of the world,” Chouhan said. Targeting Manmohan Singh, the Chief Minister said “the country has never seen such a helpless Prime Minister in its history. Though it was clear 10 years back that Manmohan Singh was not the real Prime Minister of the country, it has become all the more evident now that the real power centre is 10 Janpath (Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence). This incident has further proved that the country has dual-power centre — firstly, the PMO and secondly 10 Janpath.”
Taking a dig at both Sonia and Rahul, Chouhan said “while mother ensures the passage of an ordinance, the son later talks of tearing it up!”
In a major embarrassment to the UPA Government, Gandhi had denounced the controversial Ordinance to negate the SC verdict on convicted lawmakers as “complete nonsense” and said the Ordinance should be “torn up and thrown away”.