New Delhi, July 10: Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid has created a political storm of sorts following his dig at the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, questioning AICC General Secretary Rahul Gandhi’s ability and having a jibe at his own party which he said was moving in a vacuum due to lack of “ideological direction”.
Khurshid’s views expressed in an interview to a national daily led to both his party and the opposition training guns at him.
While he lost no time in hurriedly convening a press conference to clarify his position after reportedly being pulled by the Congress leadership, the opposition parties including BJP and Samajwadi Party rejoiced the development. The two parties described it as an “honest admission” of the prevailing conditions within the ruling UPA.
The Law Minister took recourse to issuing a clarification and stated that his remarks were misinterpreted. At the same time he had a word of advice for the media as well. He asked them to view his remarks in a positive context. “My remarks have been distorted. I had never said that the Congress is directionless,” he said.
Taking an overview of the purported prevailing situation in the Congress, he had blamed the lack of “ideological direction” from Rahul Gandhi as the main reason behind the problems plaguing the party. In his subsequent clarification he said: “Gandhi is our leader. I do not want to explain any further.”
Khurshid had said, “Until now, we have only seen cameos of Rahul’s thought and ideas like democratizing elections to the Youth Congress. But he has not weaved all of this into a grand announcement. This is a period of waiting.”
He had also admitted that Rahul was still not ready to take complete charge.
Seeking to retract, he further said, “The fact is that he is undoubtedly and unquestionably the number two leader in the party. Yet he has not taken up the mantle or accepted a functional responsibility. He is so far not willing to accept the number two position. In such a situation, we have to wait. This is a waiting time,” Khurshid said.
However, Khurshid never fully denied having commented against him or the party. This was clear from his own admission that he should have made these comments only from the party fora. “Upon reflection I feel that we should discuss such issues not with the media but only at party fora”.
Stating that “we all want to prepare for future challenges”, Khurshid said he was confident the government will be able to showcase its work to the electorate in the next elections.
He had also taken a dig at the Prime Minister’s ability to address issues dealing with “political management”. “In UPA-II, governance and politics have all got intermingled. The political props have got mixed up. It’s a scattered situation. The stage has to be set up again and only the Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) can do it. She is the one who has the stature. The Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) can then run the government, but he cannot set the stage,” he had said.

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