Rahul Gandhi has become the latest reason for war between the two rival power centres in Punjab Congress — State party chief Partap Singh Bajwa and former Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh. Apparently close to Rahul, Bajwa is in favour of handing over the party reins to him. On the other hand, Capt Amarinder is in favour of Sonia Gandhi’s continuation as party president with whom he shares good relations.
Between the mother and the son, there are no apparent differences over the issue of supremacy, but the two State party leaders are slugging it out in their names. The issue has snowballed into a major controversy between the two with both launching a scathing attack against each other for reasons so obvious.
A day after Capt Amarinder had stated that Sonia should continue as party chief while Rahul can wait for the party’s top post, Bajwa blamed him to “scuttle Rahul Gandhi’s elevation”. In response, Capt Amarinder asked him “not to distort his stand on leadership issue by spreading rumours and disinformation”.
Already a divided house, the Congress party is split over Rahul’s elevation as Congress national president, not only in Punjab, but across the country.
Senior leader including Digvijay Singh and Kamal Nath had exuded confidence that time is ripe for Rahul to replace his mother as the next party chief, many other including the Patiala Royal believed that any attempt to foist Rahul could lead to a possible split in the party.
Also the Congress deputy leader in the lok Sabha, Capt Amarinder had maintained that only Sonia Gandhi could give tough fight to the stature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
launching frontal attack against his bête noire, Bajwa condemned Capt Amarinder for unleashing his “calculated and calibrated design” to scuttle and sabotage the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as party president who will re-invigorate the party and take on the radical and regressive forces head on that are trying to turn back the wheels of history.
“Sonia Gandhi is our most revered and respected leader who will continue to be the guiding force while Rahul would initiate the drive to mobilise all sections of society and the youth in particular to meet the new challenges and attune the oldest political organisation in the country accordingly,” he said.
Bajwa said that generational change is part of the evolutionary process and the Congress party has adhered to it from time to time. Taking strong objection to Capt Amarinder’s remarks that one could not make a generational change with a knife and cut them through, Bajwa maintained, “The same could not be stymied at gun point as Captain Singh is trying to do…This is the fourth such attempt by him during the past fortnight to derail Rahul’s ascendancy.”
Bajwa reminded the former chief minister that Rahul had been in lok Sabha for long enough to gain experience and is well versed with the challenges faced by contemporary India. “Moreover, he must remember that Bill Clinton took over as US President at the age of 46 and Barack Obama at 47. Similarly, David Cameron was elected Prime Minister of England at 43 and the list of such international leaders is endless,” he said.
Bajwa recalled that Capt Amarinder had not even completed his apprenticeship in the Congress when he re-joined the party in 1998 after having remained in the Akali Dal for 14 years and was elevated as the state party president within four months thereafter.
“Moreover, it would augur well for Capt Amarinder to introspect on his own track record when it comes to matters of accessibility and interacting with the populace,” he said.
Adding, Bajwa said: “Indira Gandhi was entrusted with the organisational responsibility of the party in 1959 as AICC president when she was just 42 and took over as the Prime Minister at the age of 49. Capt Amarinder needs to brush up his knowledge of the history of the party at the least. Although under a tragic situation, Rajiv Gandhi was just 40 when he took over the reins of the country as the Prime Minister.”
Pointing out that it was the same Rahul Gandhi who had announced Capt Amarinder as the Chief Ministerial candidate before 2012 assembly elections in Punjab, “and in case, he perceived him to be an inexperienced leader as he had made out now, he should have expressed his views then”.
Bajwa asserted that at the time when Modi’s graph was nose-diving, “Capt Amarinder’s motive seemed to be to create schism in the party as part of some ulterior design…At whose behest is he trying to create this wedge and that too at this crucial juncture when the Congress party is passing through testing times”.
The State party chief reiterated that Sonia Gandhi was the most venerable leader of the party and no one should be in doubt about that. “But, at the same time, Rahul Gandhi should be elevated as president in order to meet the changing needs and aspirations of present day India,” he added.
Reacting to Bajwa’s allegations, Capt Amarinder asked him to mind his own business and not to distort his stand on leadership issue in the party by spreading rumours and disinformation. “Bajwa is trying to be more loyal than the king without actually understanding the ground situation,” he said.
Capt Amarinder reiterated that he was never against Rahul Gandhi taking over the reins of the party and he will never be. “But this is not the right time for Rahul to take over the reins as the situation and circumstances demand that Sonia Gandhi should continue,” he clarified, adding that as a Congressman and Rahul’s well-wisher, “I have no hesitation in voicing my opinion that is in the interest of the party”.
The former Chief Minister reiterated that the party needed Sonia Gandhi to provide the leadership more than ever. “Party has faced the worst ever debacle and it will require someone more seasoned and more experienced to steer it back to its revival and glory,” said Capt Amarinder.
He added, “Moreover, of late Indian politics has got too much personality oriented like in the case of Modi and Kejriwal and under these circumstances, Congress cannot afford anyone else than Sonia Gandhi at the helm.”
The Amritsar MP said: “I know Rahul since his childhood and I have all the affection for him like my son and that is why I am being honest and forthright in my opinion to say what shall suit him and the party the best…There’s no need for any haste or hurry.”
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread and that is precisely what Bajwa is fond of doing and he is trying to do it again…If someone like Bajwa thinks that I am trying to scuttle his elevation, he is viciously and wishfully mistaken and he (Bajwa) surely is not going to gain anything out of it,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi has been out of the country for over 45 days and is expected to return to the country ahead of party’s April 19 rally. There was talk of an AICC session where he would be formally elevated as the party president.