The Congress on Friday distanced itself from Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh’s admission that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is a formidable campaigner who would be a managerial and ideological challenge for the party. The Congress termed it as a personal view of the Minister and said that Modi is a challenge for his own party BJP and the NDA, and not for the Congress.
But fissures appeared in the ruling party over the controversial comments with senior leader Satyabrat Chaturvedi even advising Ramesh to resign as Minister and join the BJP if he considered Modi as a challenge.
The Congress has always been dismissive of Modi’s growing stature within the BJP and says that he is media creation. “Modi could be a challenge for the BJP and the NDA, but not for the Congress. We do not consider him a challenge. It is the considered view of the Congress. What Jairam has said may be his personal view. Right now, he has become a challenge for the BJP and the NDA itself,” Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said.
However, asked whether the party has pulled up the Minister who has found himself in controversies earlier too, Shakeel said that there is no question of pulling him up, defending or supporting him. Ramesh had termed Modi as ‘Bhasmasur’ and India’s “first authentic fascist” but at the same time also conceded that the BJP leader poses a “challenge” for the Congress party in the coming elections.
Earlier, the then Congress spokesman Rashid Alvi was taken to task by the party leadership for terming Modi as Yamraj and he was even removed from the list of spokespersons.
The Congress is wary of making personal attack against the Gujarat Chief Minister after party president Sonia Gandhi’s comment terming him as Maut ka Saudagar had boomeranged in 2007 Assembly polls. It doesn’t want to give undue importance to Modi and even its election campaign in 2012 was very low key.
Instead the party wants to corner Modi through Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. This was evident from AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh favouring CBI be allowed to submit its evidence against Special Director of Intelligence Bureau Rajinder Kumar in connection with the case.
Singh said that here has been an allegation that the Gujarat Police had carried out the fake encounter and that some IB officials have done something wrong along with the state Police. If CBI has the evidence, they should be given the opportunity to prove them, he said.