Aiyar blames slow response to scams for Congress's loss

A slow and ineffective response to allegations of scams under the erstwhile United Progressive Alliace government strengthened anti-Congress impressions in the minds of voters, which resulted in the party’s poor show in the Lok Sabha polls, senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday.

“The slow and ineffective response by Congress to the allegations of various scams levelled by the entire opposition not only dented the party’s image but changed the mind of people in the country. The allegations probably prompted voters to think (whether) to vote for Congress,” Aiyar said.

The former Union minister rubbished the question of change in leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the wake of the massive defeat and asserted that Congress will bounce back. “Though defeat is not new for Congress and for that matter for any political party but Congress will bounce back,” he added.

Elaborating on the ‘slow response’ by Congress ministers, Aiyar said, “The Comptroller and Auditor General had quoted presumptive losses in the spectrum allocation to the tune of Rs 1.76 lakh crore, but then Telecom minister Kapil Sibal reacted about three months later. By the time, people had accepted allegations as true and carried the impressions during the general election in April.”

He said that even nominations announced by Congress were quite late in some cases. “In the Chennai-South seat the ticket to the party nominee was announced just two hours before the closing of filing of nominations in Tamil Nadu,” the former Union minister said.

Referring to the Bofors case, Aiyar said, “Another set of people had levelled serious allegations in the Bofors gun deal against then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, which proved to be wrong in the course of time. There was no iota of truth in the allegations and I personally knew Rajiv who was away from all such under-hand dealings,” he said.

On change of party leadership, Aiyar said, “Congress had (fared) badly in regimes of prime ministers Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and also under P V Narasimha Rao. But at no time did the question of change of leadership crop up.”

He, in fact, backed Sonia and Rahul and questioned if other parties, who lost in the polls had changed their top leadership. “There is no question of changing Congress leadership of Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati and Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal’s party also fared poorly and they have quickly removed their aides. But have these leaders quit or is there any demand for their removal,” Aiyar asked.