Senior leaders rally behind Manmohan Singh over Cong legacy from 2004-14

Aug 1, 2020
New Delhi:  Even as the veterans vs Team Rahul war within the Congress is out in the open, former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor came to the rescue of party colleagues Manish Tewari and Milind Deora, saying the UPA’s transformative 10 years were distorted and traduced by a motivated and malicious narrative.

Tharoor took to Twitter and wrote, “I agree with Manish Tewari and Milind Deora. UPA’s transformative ten years were distorted and traduced by a motivated and malicious narrative. There’s plenty to learn from our defeats and much to be done to revive Congress. But not by playing into the hands of our ideological enemies.”

His remarks came amid the row over a Congress meeting chaired by party interim chief Sonia Gandhi two days ago, which saw arguments and sharp criticism by younger leaders who appeared to blame the party’s last government for its downfall.

Amid the criticism of the senior leaders, a section of the party rallied behind former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Twitter.

Congress leaders Anand Sharma, Tharoor, Tewari and former Mumbai Congress chief Deora – all ministers in Singh’s cabinet at one point – defended the former Prime Minister, tagging criticism for him as “ill-informed” and part of a “motivated and malicious narrative”.

Earlier in the day, Deora responding to a tweet of Tewari said, “Well said, Manish.

“When demitting office in 2014, Manmohan Singh said history will be kinder to me. Could he have ever imagined that some from his own party would dismiss his years of service to the nation and seek to destroy his legacy – that, too, in his presence?”

Deora’s remarks came after Tewari on Saturday hit out at party leaders who questioned 10 years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule at the Centre, calling them “ill-informed”.

Interestingly, he gave the example of the BJP to put out a contrasting picture on party unity.

“The BJP was out of power for 10 years (2004-14). Not once did they ever blame (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee or his government for their then predicament. In Congress, unfortunately, some ill-informed (leaders) would rather take swipes at Dr Manmohan Singh-led UPA government than fight the NDA/BJP. When unity is required, they divide,” the member of Parliament from Anandpur Sahib in Punjab tweeted.

The verbal tongue lashing from the former Minister for Information and Broadcasting comes after a number of party MPs questioned the UPA rule and demanded introspection on Congress debacles.

The members of Team Rahul had asked for introspection when the Congress’ Rajya Sabha MPs met on Thursday. The issue of the 2014 election debacle was raised by Rajeev Satav, IANS had reported on Friday.

He was countered by party senior and former Union Minister Anand Sharma and others.

Tewari said on Friday: “Was the UPA responsible for the decline in the Congress fortunes in 2014 is a valid question. It must be gone into. Equally valid is the point that the UPA was sabotaged from within. The 2019 election defeat must also be analysed.” IANS