On board PM’s Special Aircraft: The Prime Minister has reacted today for the first time to last week’s public outburst by Rahul Gandhi against an ordinance cleared by the cabinet to protect convicted parliamentarians. Dr Manmohan Singh said he will not resign over the controversy, but his remarks suggested that he questions Mr Gandhi’s decision to go public with his criticism while the Prime Minister was abroad.
“I have seen Mr Rahul Gandhi’s statement. When issues are raised in democratic polity, the right course is to discuss the issues. Mr Rahul Gandhi has asked me for a meeting. I will also take my cabinet colleagues in confidence. There is no question of resigning,” he said.
The Prime Minister’s remarks – his first since Mr Gandhi described the ordinance cleared by Dr Manmohan Singh as “nonsense” – were made to reporters on his way back to India from the US, where he attended the UN General Assembly. He also stressed that the ordinance, which allows convicted MPs to remain in office while their appeal is heard by a higher court, was cleared at a meeting on September 21 of senior Congress leaders including party president Sonia Gandhi.
Dr Singh will meet Mr Gandhi tomorrow morning before another meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee, who has received the contentious ordinance for his approval. Later in the day, the cabinet will meet to decide whether to withdraw the ordinance, while contesting that it was designed to shield criminal MPs.
The opposition has said Mr Gandhi’s public derision of the ordinance has grossly undermined the Prime Minister while he was on an international stage.
Dr Singh told reporters that he does not share that feeling because the Congress “is not an authoritarian structure” and “every Congress leader has the right to question a decision”, but his remarks today indicate that he has concerns about the timing of Mr Gandhi’s scathing review of the executive order. Dr Singh told reporters traveling home with him that that he is “not the master of what people say” and “is used to ups and downs.”