NEW DELHI: Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s implied criticism of the Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, in Amethi has drawn the battlelines in the Congress, even as the official camp tried to defuse the situation by playing down its political connotations.
Her six minute speech was the subject of intense discussion in Parliament outside the two Houses. While Congress (Tiwari) leaders were jubilant and seen shaking the hands of MPS, Rao loyalists sounded almost apologetically and pointed that it had taken five years to bring Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s assassins to book.
The middle of the road MPs are waiting to see how the situation developed and if Mrs. Gandhi followed up her Amethi salvo with more moves in the coming days. Party circles felt that with Sonia’s open criticism of his government, Rao may now be more vulnerable to pressures to go in for the long awaited Cabinet and organizational reshuffle to placate the restive Congress leaders. This is the first time Mrs. Gandhi has expressed her unhappiness with the tardy process of assassination enquiries publicly. So far, the tension between her and the Prime Minister had publicly manifested itself in her not greeting him at public functions. Though the official AICC spokesman V.N Gadgil offered “no comments” on her speech, former HRD Minister Arjun Singh’s evocative.
“As an Indian and a Congressman, after knowing what Mrs. Sonia Gandhi said in Amethi, I can only hand my head in shame,” was Mr. Singh’s comment.
Another breakaway Congress leader M.L. Fotedar said that in his view “it (Sonia’s remarks) is a call for ordinary workers like us to stand in defence of the legacy that Sonia Gandhi has inherited.”
Rajya Sabha member S.S. Ahluwalia, however, differed. He conceded that her speech was a “cry for justice,” but added that “While I share Mrs. Gandhi’s anguish, I will not attach any political motives to her expression at Amethi today.”
If one were to interpret her speech dispassionately, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi was giving vent to feelings about existing judicial system in the country. he said. In this context, he pointed out that although Mrs. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in October 1984, it took five long years for Satwant Singh to be hanged.
In Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, the Jain Commission was still looking into the conspiracy aspect of the case and more over the master-mind behind the assassination was not a Indian citizen, he said..
“On my own I have been complaining against the inordinate delay in conspiracy case in and outside Parliament.”
The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Matang Singh, while talking to television reporters said that he did not believe that there was any deliberate attempt to delay the inquiry into Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s killing.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 1, 1995
