NEW DELHI: Ruling Congress party scion Rahul Gandhi’s blistering rejection of a government decree to protect convicted lawmakers has made it uncertain whether India’s premier can continue in office, opposition and media said yesterday.
Gandhi, number two in the Congress hierarchy, turned on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government on Friday, calling its move to allow convicted criminals to serve in parliament “complete nonsense”.
Singh “stands diminished”, Arun Jaitley, a leader of the Hindu nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, said yesterday.
“If he’s undermined like this as prime minister, he won’t even be a footnote in history,” he told NDTV, adding: “He should quit if he has any self-respect”.
“Rahul drops bomb on PM, government,” said The Hindustan Times in a banner headline. The daily said Gandhi had undercut Singh “at the worst possible time” — when he was on a US visit to meet US President Barack Obama, address the UN and hold talks with Nawaz Sharif, premier of Pakistan.
Shekhar Gupta, editor of Indian Express, said it would be “heartbreaking” if Singh chose to remain in office in the face of this latest “humiliation”.
Southern regional opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu said Singh was being “insulted repeatedly” and should quit.
While Singh won a place in history as the man who lit the fuse for India’s rapid growth in the 1990s, when he was finance minister, his reputation has taken a battering as premier.
The 81-year-old, a Gandhi dynasty loyalist, has seen his reputation as “Mr Clean” tarnished. He has been accused of turning a blind eye to a string of government corruption scandals that have brought repeated opposition calls for him to resign.
The government decree seeks to overturn a Supreme Court ruling that politicians convicted of crimes should be barred from contesting elections. It is reported to have been steered by Singh.
The government had argued the ruling was unfair, saying politicians can be convicted on “frivolous grounds”. Critics had said the decree was aimed at protecting allies the Congress might need to form a government after elections due next year. While it was criticised by the opposition, it initially had wider all-party support.
Rahul told reporters in New Delhi on Friday that the ordinance was “complete nonsense and should be torn up,” adding: “If you want to fight corruption in the country... we cannot continue making these small compromises.”
The motives for the normally reticient Rahul’s outburst were unclear, but some observers saw it as an attempt to reflect popular opposition to the decree.
Singh said on Friday that the issues raised “will be considered on my return”. The decree awaits presidential approval, but observers said Gandhi’s intervention had virtually killed it.
AFP
