Satav's remarks spark row in Congress, Tewari says UPA-II government has many achievements
Jul 31, 2020
New Delhi [India], July 31 : A meeting of Congress Rajya Sabha MPs on Thursday saw differences of view over the introspection needed for its electoral debacles with a young party MP, who has been associated with Rahul Gandhi, saying that the assessment should start from the performance of UPA-II government.
Party MP Rajiv Satav made the remarks in presence of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, who had convened the virtual meeting.
Former union minister Kapil Sibal called for introspection about the defeat in the Lok Sabha polls. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram said reasons should be found about the party not getting due response from people.
However, the discussion took a different turn when Satav, a former Youth Congress chief and considered a member of team Rahul, said that introspection should start from the tenure of UPA II government after which the party was reduced 44 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections from over 200 it had won in 2009.
"You are all saying this (need to introspect) now. You were all ministers then. Frankly, it should also be looked into where you failed. You have to introspect from the UPA II period," he is learnt to have said.
Satav's remarks were made in presence of key figures in UPA II. Apart from Chidambaram and Sibal, former union ministers AK Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma attended the virtual meeting.
Some of the leaders interpreted Satav's remarks as an attack against them.
The remarks reflected apparent clash of views between the young and senior leaders of the party.
Many leaders later said that the MP had made "ill-informed" remarks and such remarks will do no good to the party.
Former Union Minister Manish Tiwari, MP, said the UPA government had several achievements to its credit.
"UPA government brought the Right to Information Act, MNREGA, mid-day meal scheme, free and compulsory education to children and Food Security Act that created the most transformative social security architecture," Tewari told ANI.
"Even Nirmala Sitaraman was compelled to admit in her last budget speech that 271 Million people were lifted out of poverty between 2006-16. Of this eight were UPA years," he added.
Referring to charges levelled over the 2G spectrum allocations, he said the UPA became a victim "of a vicious campaign of calumny and innuendo".
"However, none of the charges levelled has stood the test of the law even after six years," he said.
