Unfazed by the party’s gag order, Digvijay Singh justified his comments on the issue of Maoists, maintaining that they were made in his capacity of party General Secretary.
“I stand by whatever I have said in the newspaper article or otherwise,” said Mr. Singh, who had criticised Home Minister P. Chidambaram for his “inflexible” approach in tackling the Maoist menace and had described him as “intellectually arrogant”.
He said that his remarks concerning the government strategy on Maoists were in his role as party General Secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh which “also has a Maoist problem“.
“I welcome the circular. Everyone should follow it.
Whatever I say and whatever I do, I try to be as honest as possible following the directive of the party,” Mr. Singh told reporters.
His remarks come a day after the party asked its leaders not to speak out of turn in a blunt message that “democracy is not anarchy”.
The unusual order was clamped by party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi by issuing a circular to party leaders, directing them to restrict themselves to their area of responsibility and not speak out of turn.
However, Mr. Singh said the Prime Minister was right in reposing his faith in Mr. Chidambaram to lead the Home Ministry.
