Congress will surpass 2009 Lok Sabha tally: Rahul Gandhi

mangaloretoday.com/ PTI

New Delhi, March 16, 2014: Debunking opinion polls, the Congress vice-president recalled that predictions before 2004 and 2009 elections also were that the Congress was going to lose and get thrashed

An upbeat Rahul Gandhi on Sunday rejected the view that the Congress party was an “underdog” or that it faced an “uphill” task in the Lok Sabha polls, affirming that there would be a Congress-led UPA III.

Acknowledging that after 10 years in power “there is a certain amount of anti-incumbency against us”, the Congress campaign chief, nevertheless, disagreed with senior party leader and Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s view that the party was an underdog and faced an uphill task.

“Congress is fighting a challenging election and we will win the election,” he said while refusing to hazard a guess about the number of seats the party would get. “I am not a soothsayer but we will do well,” he told PTI in an exclusive interview here.

 

Debunking opinion polls, which he had described as a joke, Mr. Gandhi said the party would do better than the 2009 elections when it had won 206 seats. Predictions before 2004 and 2009 elections also were that the Congress was going to lose and get thrashed, he recalled.

Answering a question on the failure of the government and the party to communicate with the people, he admitted, “I think certainly we could have been more aggressive in conveying our achievements. As I said, we have done transformatory work. We could always be better in communication.”

"Not losing allies"

Rubbishing the perception that Congress was losing allies, the party vice president said that it had alliances with NCP, RJD, JMM, RLD and the National Conference but had lost the DMK and the Trinamool Congress.

Asked if the Congress could “do business” with TMC and DMK again, Mr. Gandhi replied, “We are always willing to work with people who share our ideology and political philosophy, who are determined to fight sectarian and communal forces that seek to divide India for narrow political gains.”

Contending that his power was being “overestimated”, the Congress vice-president disclosed that he had differed with the government on a number of issues but “I have been overruled.”

Asked to cite examples, he said that “one very large public place where I was overruled” was on the question of making Lokpal a Constitutional body. “I had a different view from the senior members of the party and I was overruled.”

Another instance cited by him pertained to the Ordinance to nullify a Supreme Court order disqualifying convicted lawmakers in which he had a view different from senior members of the party but was initially overruled.

“Then I took the step of making my views public,” he said in an obvious reference to a press conference at which he had declared that the Ordinance should be torn away. He was articulating the public opinion and the party had listened to that.

In a reference to the controversy triggered by his going public aggressively on the issue while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in the U.S., the Gandhi scion acknowledged that “in hindsight that it could have been done in a better way“.

Mr. Gandhi was asked about his comments that the “system” needed to move away from concentration of power and that he was going to “take on” the system.

“You yourself are a product of the system — you are very much an insider — and you want to play the role of an outsider.

Your critics would say that you want to have the best of both the worlds,” the questioner remarked.

Mr. Gandhi responded by saying what was important was “not where I come from but what I work for. Does being an insider — as you define me — take away from me the right to disagree or fight for a change?

“Those who want to reform the system are often people who revolt against the very system they are part of. We opened up the youth Congress and NSUI to elections and are holding primaries in 15 Lok Sabha constituencies.

“I would like to ask my critics from the opposition parties if they would demonstrate their willingness to open up their parties to such empowering initiatives. These insider/outsider are unimportant labels.

To a question about people’s disappointment with the lacklustre performance of the UPA government, Mr. Gandhi replied that in the last 10 years the UPA government had delivered the highest-ever growth rate and had pulled 150 million out of poverty. It had brought a new kind of transformational politics through RTI, right to education, right to food and employment.

"Modi answerable on moral grounds"

Hitting out at the BJP’s prime minsterial candidate Narendra Modi, Mr. Gandhi on Sunday demanded “legal accountability” for the “clear and inexcusable failure” of governance during the 2002 Gujarat riots and dismissed talk of clean chit to him as “politically expedient” but “far too premature".

Contending that Mr. Modi was answerable on moral grounds, the Congress’ chief campaigner said, “beyond that there should be a legal accountability for the clear and inexcusable failure of governance under him"

Mr. Gandhi was answering a question during on BJP’s contention that Mr. Modi had been given a clean chit by the Supreme Court—appointed SIT and the courts and, therefore, he had nothing to answer for or apologise for about the post-Godhra riots.

He replied, “As you know, the SIT report had been seriously questioned by a number of credible experts. Grave flaws have been pointed out in the functioning of the SIT.

The acceptance of the flawed SIT report by the lowest court has not yet been subjected to judicial scrutiny by higher courts.

“The specific allegation and evidence pointing to Mr Modi’s responsibility in the 2002 riots are yet to be adequately probed. Any talk of his having been given a clean chit may be politically expedient, but is far too premature.

There are many unanswered questions. There is a lot more the country needs to know,” he said.

’AAP not a factor’

Rahul Gandhi does not see the Aam Admi Party (AAP) as a factor at the national level in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Accusing it of “running away” from governance in Delhi, the Congress leader said that the new party had got an opportunity to run Delhi for which the Congress had given full support.

“They did not solve any of the problems they said they would solve. Frankly, they ran away,” he said here on Sunday.

“It is one thing to make large statements — that we will do this and we will do that. It is totally different to actually run a government and they found that out. I don’t see the achievements of the AAP government in Delhi,” Mr. Gandhi said.

To a question whether he considers AAP to be a factor in the polls, he said, “at the national I don’t think so.”