Congress ticks off Jairam for praising Aam Aadmi Party

Kolkata: Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh interacting with media at West Bengal Pradesh Congress office in Kolkata on Tuesday. PTI Photo by Swapan Mahapatra(PTI10_1_2013_000037B)

Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday drew flak from the Congress for praising the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), suggesting that it should not be taken lightly and equating it with a “ dashavatar ” which could assume different shapes in different States.

While Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi did not name Mr. Ramesh while criticising him, it was evident who he was referring to as he also denounced the other statements he made such as giving credit to Anna Hazare for the passage of the Lokpal Bill and stating that the Congress would not have found itself in the present situation had it passed the Bill two years ago.

The party’s anger was reflected in the manner in which Mr. Dwivedi also questioned Mr. Ramesh’s credentials to raise these issues. Such remarks, he said, could only have come from someone who had not gone through the rigours of party work and yet risen to prominence. “Only those persons have illusions, who themselves are not political workers, who have not suffered the pain,” he said.

Mr. Ramesh had in his statement cautioned the party against taking the AAP lightly: “Making fun of them would be proved wrong.”

Reacting to this, Mr. Dwivedi said it would not be correct to jump to conclusions about the AAP just yet, as it had only won in one State and was yet to fulfil its commitments. “The AAP raised an issue, the party was formed, it got support and they formed the government in a State. The issue was corruption.”

But, he said while the AAP has got support on the issue, it was now time for it to deliver on the promises it made to come to power.

“It is another thing to get support by raising an issue, by raking up sentiment... but some system is needed even to run an arrangement. And for running a system you need both ideology and organisation.”

In the case of the AAP, he said a perceptible change was visible with people now moving towards power politics. “It may happen that the number of its founders may be overtaken by those joining the party for power. What will be the party’s future then?”