'The Congress president was scared that I would be a
challenge to her'
Onkar Singh in New Delhi
Former Union minister Matang Singh, who was expelled from the Congress for six years for anti-party activities on Wednesday, has vowed to fight back.
In an interview to rediff.com hours after he was served the expulsion order, Singh, an associate of former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, said he would expose the group of drawing room politicians who were behind the move.
"Sonia Gandhi is treating the Congress as her private enterprise. She should remember that in a private organisation managing directors come and go, but the employees stay on. She is the leader right now. I am a humble Congress worker. I will continue to work for the party," Singh thundered.
He wondered whether his expulsion was justified when only last week the disciplinary action committee led by Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy had refused to take action against him.
"Where is the evidence that he [Matang Singh] indulged in anti-party activity?" Reddy had asked Oscar Fernandes, who had moved the motion against the leader.
"How can they change the decision overnight?" Singh asked indignantly.
He alleged that Reddy signed on the dotted line after the Congress president promised him [the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister] a Rajya Sabha seat when he met her a couple of days ago.
Singh said the Congress president took personal offence when he wrote her a letter dated October 8, 1999 after the party's dismal performance in the last general election.
'This election was fought entirely under your leadership. And we have not reached 120 seats. Much as you would deny, the results go out to prove that the people have voted against you as the prime ministerial candidate. In the 1998 election despite all your efforts we got 141 seats, all of which were credited to you. Yet Sitaram Kesri was removed.' Singh wrote to Sonia.
He also suggested that she quit as Congress president. 'The defeat is here to stay until you allow a leader with wider acceptability to take over the reins of the party. It would be in your interest at this juncture to forego your personal ambitions and allow somebody with a clean image, a mass base and wider acceptability in the party rank and file like Shri N D Tewari, Shri Rajesh Pilot to take over as CPP leader,' the letter said.
According to Singh's supporters, Sonia was so furious when she received it that she immediately directed Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Tarun Gogoi to send Singh a show cause notice.
Sarat Borkotoky, convener of the APCC disciplinary committee, sent Singh a letter on October 29. He was asked why action should not be taken against him for indulging in anti-party activities and canvassing against official candidates in the Lok Sabha election in Assam.
"I think the Congress president was scared that a person like me could become a challenge to her. She has been trying to send signals to Congress leaders that if they do not fall in line, action would be taken against them as well.
"She is scared that top leaders have started meeting former prime minister Rao. She thinks that I am mobilising support for Rao or for a change in leadership. I will now openly do what she has only feared so far," he said.
He blamed a handful of "drawing room politicians" for his expulsion. "The chief architect, of course, is Santosh Mohan Deb. Others have colluded with him," he alleged.
Singh claimed that 10 members of the Congress Working Committee had phoned him to express their solidarity with him. He has had talks with Sharad Pawar, P A Sangma and other leaders who had earlier left the Congress.
"But I have no intention of joining hands with them at this point. I would continue to support Rao. I am a loyal worker of the party. I will strive hard for the interest of the party," he said.
He expressed surprise that an informal meeting with some members of Parliament at his child's birthday party could be termed as anti-party activity.
"The whole thing was planned to look like I had been working against the interests of the party," he said.
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