Journalism of Courage
Reacting to the recent remark of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on the issue of ordinance on convicted lawmakers,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that he would talk to the Gandhi scion on the issue.
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The Prime Minister also ruled out his resignation over the issue,saying,”I don’t feel undermined,we are not an authoritarian structure.” “I am not the master of what people say,” he added.
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According to reports,the Prime Minister will ask the Congress vice president why he made a statement on the issue when Singh was away. Singh,however,added,”Everyone has a right to ask for reconsideration of a decision.”
Singh also pointed that the ordinance was discussed twice at the Cabinet.
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The Prime Minister further said,”I honestly feel if there’s an important point of view,any member of the Congress,or of my Cabinet,is free to raise issues.”
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“I have been used to ups and downs,” said the Prime Minister in a composed manner while talking about the controversy that overshadowed part of his seven-day visit.
Answering questions by journalists on the controversy,he said he takes everything in his stride and “I don’t get upset easily,even when you ask”.
“I don’t think we are an authoritarian structure in which one person lays down the line all the way and therefore my humble feeling is that when a point of view has been expressed,we must sit together and understand what is agitating the mind of the person who has raised these issue and that’s what we will do,” he added.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had on Friday chose to publicly castigate the UPA government for issuing an ordinance to negate the Supreme Court order on disqualifying convicted MPs and MLAs,terming it as “complete nonsense” that should be “torn and thrown out”.
The move,Congress strategists said,may help Rahul to distance himself from the UPA government’s perceived omissions and commissions and go to the electorate with a clean image. But in the process,it delivered a blow to the image of the government as also that of Congress president Sonia Gandhi who was a part of the Congress core group meeting last Saturday which cleared the ordinance proposal.
The Ordinance was approved by the Cabinet on September 24,a day before the Prime Minister left on his US tour. The decision has generated a huge controversy and President Pranab Mukherjee has refused to sign it.
(With PTI Inputs)
