Senior Congressmen shocked as Kesri denies ticket to Rao
George Iype in New Delhi
Ghost from the past have caught up with former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao.
Congress president Sitaram Kesri today announced that Rao will not be given a ticket to contest the forthcoming general election for his failure to protect the Babri Masjid, which was demolished on December 6, 1992.
Kesri made this surprise announcement during the release of the party's manifesto in which the Congress has apologised for the demolition at Ayodhya.
The Congress 'unreservedly apologises to the people of India that it could not prevent the tragic events of December 6, 1992.' The party has also given a solemn pledge that 'such events will not take place again.'
Kesri's sudden declaration to seal Rao's fate publicly took many Congress leaders present at the occasion by surprise. Manifesto Committee chairman Pranab Mukherjee said a final decision to approve Rao's candidature has not yet been taken, notwithstanding Kesri's statement.
Congress Working Committee member A K Antony said a decision on Rao's candidature will be taken sooner than later. "The party president has already announced his decision. How can I say anything different from what Kesriji told you now on the issue?" he told Rediff On The NeT.
Besides Antony and Mukherjee, Kesri was flanked by Sharad Pawar, R K Dhawan, Dr Manmohan Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Narain Dutt Tiwari, Arjun Singh, Madhavrao Scindia, Makhan Lal Fotedar, Tariq Anwar and V N Gadgil.
Kesri and Mukherjee said the decision to apologise for the Babri mosque issue is "an extension of the resolution of the All India Congress Committee plenary session in Calcutta in August last year."
Many in the Congress believe the party leadership's decision to punish Rao for ''his indecisiveness in safeguarding the controversial Ayodhya mosque'' is a clever strategy not to give tickets to Congressmen who have been chargesheeted in various corruption scandals.
A section of Congressmen had asked the party leadership to deny tickets to all those, including Rao, who have been involved in various corruption cases.
But by fixing responsibility on Rao over the Ayodhya mosque, Kesri will be able to provide tickets to leaders like Balram Jakhar who is yet to be absolved of his involvement in the Jain hawala case.
Rao had planned to contest from Berhampur in Orissa, the constituency he represented in the dissolved Lok Sabha.
However, it is still not known whether Rao will fight as an Independent candidate from Berhampur. The former prime minister has taken a philosophical stand on his fate, saying ''politics these days has become a game of snakes and ladder where the snakes are always waiting under a ladder''.
When the attention of Kesri and other Congress leaders was drawn to a recent newspaper interview given by Dr Manmohan Singh -- where he advocated that the party should apologise for the Operation Blue Star in Punjab --
Mukherjee said, "Such an apology will definitely ease the hurt feelings of the people of Punjab."
Kesri also waxed eloquent on Sonia's entry into the Congress to dismiss reports that he is not in the good books of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's widow.
He said the Congress always faced problems and went out of power at the Centre whenever the party ''was delinked from the Nehru-Gandhi family. Now Soniaji is in the saddle and we will come to power.''
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