In an indirect but sharp criticism of the current Congress leadership after the party’s Assembly poll debacle, NCP president Sharad Pawar said on Monday that people “do not want weak rulers”, but “need strong, decisive and result-oriented leaders” like late Indira Gandhi, who would have thwarted the emergence of “pseudo” activists of the likes of Arvind Kejriwal in political arena.
A day after the Congress suffered a humiliating defeat in the Assembly polls in four States, Pawar rubbed salt into the wounds of his party’s senior ruling ally in Maharashtra and at the Centre, when he said that the young voters used the ballot to vent their anger against the Sonia Gandhi-led party.
“They do not want weak rulers, but they want those who will formulate policies and programmes for poor and implement them with firmness,” Pawar said.
Castigating “pseudo” activists like Arvind Kejriwal whom he did not name but his reference to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor was unmistakable, for misleading the people in the run-up to the polls, Pawar said: “Of late weak leadership at various levels has given a rise to bunch of pseudo activists who have no connect with ground reality. It is observed that not only media but also people in Government get influenced by these people. They come up with unrealistic ideas and impression gets created that they are representing people’s feelings which is not true”.
In a detailed write-up posted on his blog “Being Sharad Pawar: My experiences and thoughts”, the Union Agriculture Minister began on a self-introspection note: “The outcome of recent polls in four states has raised questions that require serious thinking from not only the Congress, but the rest of us too…. While the Congress has lost much ground in the Assembly elections held in Delhi and four other States, we too, need to think over the outcome seriously”.
The initial talk of self-introspection notwithstanding, Pawar soon turned up the heat on the Congress leadership, by specifically pointing out that the young voters had vented out their anger against the Congress through the ballot. “They (the young) voters want leaders who are decisive about their stands and the policies that will benefit the people and do not hesitate to roll out such policies,” he said.
“When such confidence is lacking in the rulers, other power centres are likely to spring. This was the big lesson to be learnt from the Assembly election results,” the NCP chief added, as he alluded to the emergence of Kejriwal as a force to reckon with in the Delhi State Assembly polls.
Heaping praise on late Indira Gandhi under whose leadership he had worked in the Congress in seventies, Pawar said: “Whenever there was a strong and decisive leadership, such forces (the likes of Arvind Kejriwal) never came to the fore. Take example of our late Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi. She was strong and decisive. She took bold decisions such as nationalisation of banks or ending privy purses, which she implemented with conviction and firmness”.
Pawar’s criticism of the Congress leadership is being seen in the State political circles more as a bargaining tool that he would use in the pre-lok Sabha poll seat-sharing talks that he would have with the Congress leadership at a time when the Sonia Gandhi-led party is contemplating in terms of scaling down the number of seats it would allot to the irrigation scam-tainted and “not so formidable” NCP that he heads.
Secondly, through his criticism of the Congress top brass, Pawar is seeking to send out a message to his ally that he is not averse to going the Third Front way, in the post-lok Sabha poll scenario.
In his blog post, Pawar attributed the BJP’s good electoral performance in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Delhi to the strong base the party with a legacy of experienced leaders had in these States. Another factor that favoured the BJP in Rajasthan and Delhi was that the people there yearned for a change in rulers, he said.