Rahul Gandhi will always be my leader but there are plenty of good people to lead the party, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has said in an interview that is a part of a new book on next generation of political leaders.
Ms Vadra said ‘nobody had fought Modi [Prime Minister] like my brother’ but was willing to endorse his earlier stand of a non-Gandhi leading the party and didn't see any difficulty to work in such an arrangement.
The book, India Tomorrow: Conversations with the Next generation of Political Leaders, written by United States-based academics Pradeep Chibber and Harsh Shah has interviews of young leaders from across the political spectrum: from Union Minister Smriti Irani to Aaditya Thackeray, Assaduddin Owaisi to Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jignesh Mevani to Sachin Pilot.
Other leaders who are part of the book include Akhilesh Yadav, Devendra Fadnavis, Omar Abdullah, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Milind Deora, K T Ramarao, Varun Gandhi, Poonam Mahajan, Kalikesh Singh Deo, Supriya Sule, Sushmita Dev and Madhukeswar Desai.
The interviews have been done over a period and Congress functionaries claimed that the interviews with Mr. Gandhi and Ms Vadra were done last year, a couple of months after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Rahul’s explanation
Asked about his decision to quit as Congress chief, Mr. Gandhi said he did so to instil a culture of accountability in the party and insisted that he didn't require the post to strengthen the Congress or take on the BJP.
Ms Vadra, in her most extensive interview, talked about her growing up years, entry into politics, the impact of allegations against her family on her children and her willingness to lead the party.
“Firstly, I would like to say that, to me, my brother is my leader and he will always be. Secondly, I see hundreds of people in U.P. and in different parts of the country who are very well equipped to fight the BJP. There are young and good enough leaders. I cannot tell the future, I do not know what is going to happen in the future. But, I think there are plenty of people who are capable to lead the party as well,’ she said in response to a question if she was ready to lead the Congress.
“As my brother said very clearly in his resignation letter post the elections that he thinks that he should take responsibility for the last election. And perhaps not in the letter but elsewhere, he said that none of us should be the president of the party and I am in full agreement with him. I think that the the party should find its own path also”, she added.
Scindia’s stand
In his first interview after joining the BJP, Mr. Scindia made it clear it was prompted by the circumstances he faced in Madhya Pradesh.
“With regard to my decision, I was impacted mainly by the situation in my home state, Madhya Pradesh”, he said, adding “My dream for M.P. had not just been shattered due to the Congress State government’s leadership’s lack of intent, but also because of the fact that politics and corruption had prevailed over public service”.
