Press Briefing
Tuesday, 29th November 2011
Shri Abhishek
Singhvi addressed the media today.
Shri Abhishek Singhvi said Shri Rahul Gandhi has
yesterday and today truly raised ‘buniyadi’
issues, fundamental to the good governance of
this country. He has as usual been frank,
forthright and clear. He has as usual not minced
his words. His idiom, his thinking is focus
style and his work ethic all reflect the fact
that he thinks what he says, he likes to say
what he thinks and more importantly he genuinely
tries to do what he says and to say what he
does. There are various facets but I want to
highlight a few. There is under our very noses a
revolution in democracy and democratic
transparency. The aspirations of the smallest to
anyone else so far as youth congress aspirations
are concerned can be fulfilled in open free fair
elections. We may take it for granted but 22
states in India, across India, have elected over
4 lakh office- bearers. I call it a revolution
in a democratic transparency and enrolled over
1.08 crore members and that is the genuine
members - not merely figures. The Youth Congress
has become, over the last two years with this
revolution, the symbol reflecting the six or
seven basic pillars and I am challenging any
other political party or organization even out
of politics an organization of the youth which
can show this degree of participatory democracy.
The seven pillars, the core pillars have been
Membership, Internal elections, Leadership
Development, Training Programmes, Financial
self-sufficiency and Performance Audit and so on
and so forth. The second facet has been his
exhortation and the very elaborate articulation
of his vision of inclusive economic growth and
the crux of that has been not only several ways
and means of increasing the size of the cake,
the growth rate from over 7.5% to as much as we
can achieve but ultimate object is to reach 9%
but more importantly how the case is
distributed, distributive equity. That is the
vision of inclusive growth. It is that
philosophy and that approach which is in formed
schemes like Rs. 60,000 crore subsidy on food,
Rs. 1.10 lakh crore to all forms of fuel.
Ultimately these are the things which cushion
the impact of market forces when we talk of
price rise, e.g. this is the cushioning impact
of those forces.
The convention which is going on right now in
Rohini has one other unique facet and this is
truly unique. It has perhaps for the first time
created a very strong connect – an interactive
connect between the thinkers and visionaries of
our society and the aspiring political youth
under the youth Congress banner on a topic as
vital as ‘Shaping the Future’. Shri Rahul Gandhi
has, therefore, exploded the myth of disconnect
between the so-called thinkers and intellectuals
on one hand and the youth especially youth
political movement on the other hand. Today we
have minds like Sam Pitroda, Ashish Nandy,
Sunita Narain, Badri Narain, Nandan Nilekani.
They are interacting in open, free and fair
session at great length on themes which are the
cutting edge of the important and vital subject
of ‘Shaping the Future’ and in that Shri Rahul
Gandhi has also woven the theme of lessons of
leadership extrapolated from the essence of
Gandhiji. This is the larger picture and we have
to see the vision, the ‘soch’, the philosophy
behind it.
On the question of the view of the Congress
party over the impasse in the Parliament and the
fact that even the allies of UPA are against the
FDI, Shri Singhvi said the problem today is that
you are converting the parliament from a body
with twin major objectives into a form or rather
a field for agitation. It has become the
agitational body instead of the legislation and
discussion body because you are having a strange
principle which at the root must be condemned
not criticized. It should be condemned because
the principle is two-fold. One is that there is
no question of my agreeing or disagreeing with
you. I am not here to debate with you. I will
not allow the parliament to start functioning
unless you roll back a policy which is of the
government of India. One day they say something
and the on the other day they say something
else. Suppose you accept this principle.
Tomorrow if I am in the opposition and demands
that parliament cannot function unless the
government resigns. What kind of principle is
this? The third aspect is – the debate is not
about price-rise or the black-money or the FDI
in retail. The debate is unless you agree to
debate in this manner or form we will not even
debate the manner and form and we will not allow
the parliament to function. This is very
important principle and I am very serious. This
is utter irresponsibility. This is obstructive
attitude. This is completely belying any
resemblance to any sense of responsibility and
obligation to the nation. Shri Singhvi further
said there is nothing in parliament which cannot
be discussed. There is nothing which can be
discussed in parliament if you put an advance
ruling. We are open to discussion. This is for
the Speaker to decide under which rule to allow
discussion. It is for the house to decide.
Shri Singhvi further added that you leave our
allies to us. They are our allies. They are our
supporters. First let the opposition allow the
parliament to function. We will persuade, we
will convince. We will in every manner hope for
the persuasive power of logic. The opposition
has changed their stand for 6-7 times in four
days. Their objective is to disrupt the
parliament and create ‘hungama’ at any cost.
On the question of Lokpal Bill, Shri Singhvi
said I am the Chairman of the Standing Committee
looking into it and I can assure you that we are
progressing in the right direction. It is not my
domain to decide about the behavior of the
parliament towards the Lokpal Bill.
On the question whether there is any stand-off
with Team Anna on Lokpal Bill issue, Shri
Singhvi said there is no question of any
stand-off between the constitutional authorities
and other people. We have a job on our hand and
we are trying to do it with the best of our
abilities. We are here to discharge our duties
towards the parliament and the nation. As far as
your question is concerned about the difference
of opinion, the Congress party has always
reflected diverse opinions and I think that is
the measure of a democratic party. We respect
the difference of opinion.
To another question on the deliberations in the
all party meeting relating to FDI in retail,
Shri Singhvi said that this shows the approach
of the government which is transparent and I
think they should appreciate the same because
this is a bold initiative of the government.
On the question of the reaction of the Congress
party over the statement of Shri Rahul Gandhi
that there is corruption in the political
system, Shri Singhvi requested not to distort
his words. Certainly I accept, as most right
thinking people must accept, that the political
system needs radical reform to root out the evil
of corruption which is what he said and what he
meant very clearly. That does not mean that it
is the unique privilege or the special
entitlement or the special talent of only the
political or only the bureaucratic classes to
commit corruption. He did not mean and say that.
Certainly political system has to be reformed
and that reform has to be preventive to prevent
situation arising which facilitate corruption.
This is what he was saying.
(Tom Vadakkan)
Secretary, AICC
