'Can never think of disrespecting Manmohan Singh': Cong defends Rahul after ordinance row

The Congress on Monday defended Rahul Gandhi's act of tearing a copy of an ordinance in 2013 and said that Gandhi or the party can never think of disrespecting former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Randeep Surjewala said Gandhi's move of tearing the ordinance brought by the UPA government to allow those convicted in criminal cases to contest elections was a courageous step.

'There is no question of disrespecting Singh'

His reaction came after former Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said that after the Rahul Gandhi ordinance-trashing episode of 2013, Singh had asked him whether he thought he should resign as Prime Minister.  Surjewala, who is the party's chief spokesperson said, "We are not privy to the conversation that took place between the two-persons (Singh and Ahluwalia), but we can say Rahul Gandhi has said he considered Manmohan Singh his guru. Thus, there is no question of disrespecting Singh."

Congress said when all the political parties were in agreement to go ahead with the Ordinance, Rahul Gandhi tried to change the course because he wanted "the Ganges of politics to be clean". The Supreme Court had a day before the ordinance-trashing episode had issued directions to all parties to make public the cases against a candidate, Surjewala said.

The former deputy chairman of the now-defunct Planning Commission, Ahluwalia had said he told Singh, who was then on a visit to the US, that he did not think a resignation on this issue was appropriate.

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In a major embarrassment to his own government, Gandhi had denounced the controversial ordinance brought by the UPA dispensation to negate a Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers. He had termed it as "complete nonsense" that should be "torn up and thrown away".

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Singh, while returning home from the US, had ruled out his resignation though he appeared piqued over the entire episode. "I was part of the PM's delegation in New York and my brother Sanjeev, who had retired from the IAS, telephoned to say he had written a piece that was very critical of the PM. He had emailed it to me and said he hoped I didn't find it embarrassing," recalled Ahluwalia.

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(With agency inputs) (Image credits: PTI)