BJP veteran L.K. Advani has claimed that the credit for the withdrawal of the ordinance to shield convicted lawmakers from disqualification goes to President Pranab Mukherjee, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi could have “used” Rahul Gandhi to “control the damage” to the government.
Writing on his blog, he said the description of the development as a victory for the Congress vice-president was a comment on “how superficial” the media had become.
Mr. Advani said the BJP delegation he led to the President on September 26 to drive home the party’s stand that the ordinance was unconstitutional and he not sign it got the impression that Mr. Mukherjee had reservations about the measure. “It seems these Ministers [Sushilkumar Shinde, Kapil Sibal and Kamal Nath] were told that the President had reservations about the ordinance. This must have alarmed them. The President returning the ordinance to the government unsigned would have been a major setback to the government.”
“It is then perhaps that Soniaji may have thought of doing some damage- control using Rahul… It is obvious, however, that no one advised him how precisely he was to carry out this task. The objective would have been fully served, had Rahul simply said the decision taken by the government needs to be reviewed,” Mr. Advani said.
