New Delhi, May 9
Human resource development minister Arjun Singh, who has a reputation for creating controversies, has once again set the cat among the pigeons.
A day after his cryptic statement questioning the current decision-making process in the Congress raised eyebrows, the veteran leader set off another storm with his remark that assessment of loyalty in the party is being judged from a narrow and limited perspective.
Arjun Singh was speaking at a function held here today for the release of a book on him titled “Mohin Kahan Vishram” edited by Kanhaiyalal Nandan. President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were present but no other senior Congress leader, except M.L. Fotedar and Santosh Mohan Deb, turned up for the event.
His comments met with a quick and angry response from senior leader R.K. Dhawan who said “loyalty is commanded and not demanded,” indicating that this confrontation with Arjun Singh is set to escalate in the coming days. Earlier, Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed had outrightly rejected Arjun Singh’s contention that the decision-making in the party has fallen into disarray.
Once considered a member of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s inner coterie, Arjun Singh has fallen out of favour with her in recent years. Singh, who has never been happy with the appointment of Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, recently earned the wrath of the party leadership with his “Rahul for PM” statement for which he was snubbed and dubbed a “sycophant”. His remarks were seen as a deliberate attempt to undermine PM’s authority.
Arjun Singh’s disenchantment with the party leadership came through in his speech today where he made no mention of Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi though he did refer to Jawarharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and even Sanjay Gandhi.
The Nehru-Gandhi family, according to the HRD minister, had a great potential to identify loyalists and could differentiate between genuine and fake loyalists. “But the assessment of loyalty is being made in a limited and narrow perspective,” Arjun Singh added, clearly referring to his own fall from grace. He also recalled how he was dropped from the Cabinet after he lodged a protest against the imposition of emergency.
The book released today also contains an interview with Arjun Singh in which he has said decision-making in the party has “disintegrated” and that people have little role in it any more.
Reacting sharply to Arjun Singh’s statements, R.K. Dhawan asked, “Where is the loyalty... if a person maintains he is loyal but his actions and deeds are not commensurate with what he is saying.”
