Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: Adding his voice to Salman Khurshid’s, Mani Shankar Aiyar - senior leader of the Congress - voiced his concern for the party and said in an interview to Zee News’ Swati Chaturvedi that there is a lack of inner party democracy. Aiyar said that “post Indira Gandhi’s regime the biggest weakness of the Congress party has been a lack of coordination between senior party leaders and the party workers”.
On being asked if the country and the party were disenchanted with the Gandhi family’s leadership, he said, “Congress is the Gandhi family and till the Gandhi family is there Congress would not be directionless.”
Aiyar also said, “There are no other claimants to the top job in the party.”
Asked if the voters of UP had rejected Rahul Gandhi in favour of Akhilesh Yadav he said, “Rahul, our Rajkumar, is not one who would fight a war in an easy state like Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. He went to battle in Uttar Pradesh where victory for Congress was critical. I have spoken to Rahul on the UP results and he did not share Digvijay Singh’s rosy assessment of our state there.”
On being asked about Rahul`s silence on major issues of the day, Aiyar drew a parallel with his father late Rajeev Gandhi. He quoted an incident from a biography which said that once when Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru went to Doon School where Rajeev was studying; there Rajeev was found hiding in a hamper. Aiyar said that he asked Rajeev about the incident and Gandhi said, “It was true and he did all this because he knew that if he said anything, people would have said that you are a parrot and speak what your grandfather says or else they would have said who are you to say this when Pt Nehru is saying something.” So, he realised it was best to keep his mouth shut and brain open.
Aiyar added, “He (Rajeev Gandhi) was not the PM, his mother was the PM and had he said two words about policies, which differed by a comma from his mother’s, you the media would have concluded that there were differences and created a sensation.”
Aiyar said that Rahul Gandhi today is in a similar position as his mother is the Congress president and Dr Manmohan Singh the PM.
