A day after former Defence Minister AK Antony stirred a hornets’ nest by questioning Congress’ secular credentials, party general secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday created a controversy by claiming that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi does not have a temperament to rule.
Singh, in an interview to a local cable news channel in Goa said that the Gandhi scion’s primary concern was fighting injustice. “He is by temperament not a ruling person. He is by temperament, someone who wants to fight injustice,” Singh was quoted as saying by mthe channel.
But with his comments creating a stir, Digvijay hastened to clarify that all that he meant was to suggest Rahul doesn’t hanker for power.
On his arrival in Bangalore, he told the media, “I said he is always fighting against injustice and therefore he is not for power. He is aggressive when it comes to fight for injustice. That is the difference between him and us.”
As per the original transcript released by the channel, Digvijay was quoted as saying, “By temperament, woh sattadhaari vyakti nahin hain. By temperament, woh aisa vyakti hai jo anyay ke khilaph ladna chaahta hai (He is not a ruler by temperament. By temperament he is a person, who wants to fight injustice).”
Responding to a query about his statement being perceived as raising question on Rahul’s leadership quality, he said, “No no. It is that every one doesn’t hanker after power. Even Sonia Gandhi; she never took the prime ministership, that is the difference between the family and others. He (Rahul) is leading the party.”
Singh, who is the AICC General Secretary in-charge of Goa, was camping in the State to interact with local leaders. He also suggested that Rahul should have taken over the reins as the Opposition leader in the lok Sabha after the party’s huge loss in the recent lok Sabha elections.
“In a democracy, the Opposition space is necessary. Since, the Congress is largest Opposition group, our Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi should have taken up the responsibility,” he said.
What seemed to have triggered talk of dissent over Digvijay’s statement was Friday’s development when Antony admitted that a large number of people in Kerala were not prepared to trust the secularism advocated by his party. “The situation is so bad that a problem of credibility arises at the very mention of the word secularism,” he said.
Speaking at a function organised at Indira Bhavan, the headquarters of Kerala’s Congress unit in Thiruvananthapuram, Antony, who had the other day admitted that the party was in the middle of a deep crisis, said that there was a general complaint among many people that the Congress had been showing special consideration for certain castes and communities.
.