New Delhi: The Congress has distanced itself from party leader Partap Singh Bajwa’s comments purportedly referring to former prime minister Manmohan Singh as “farzi” (fake) and a “proxy” PM who “caused harm” to the people.
At a rally of the Congress’ ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra in Punjab’s Pathankot Thursday, Bajwa had implored MP and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi to take over as PM if the Congress is voted to power in the 2024 general elections, instead of appointing a “farzi” or “proxy” PM.
The BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) have since criticised Bajwa’s statement, calling it an insult to the former two-term prime minister, also a Sikh.
Speaking to ThePrint, the Congress in-charge for Punjab, Harish Chaudhary, said that Bajwa’s comments were his own and not the view of the party or that of its Punjab unit.
“The first thing is that Dr Manmohan Singh was not a proxy PM,” he said.
“Secondly, Mr Bajwa’s comments were his own and not that of the Punjab unit or the party. He (Bajwa) was making his own request to Rahulji,” he added.
When asked how the All India Congress Committee would take up the issue with Bajwa, who is also the opposition leader in Punjab, Chaudhary said these were “internal matters of the party” and it would “not be right to discuss them in public”.
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Suffered because of ‘proxy PM’: Bajwa
At the rally in Pathankot, Bajwa, while addressing Rahul who was on stage, said that he wanted the Gandhi scion to usher the “second Green Revolution” in the state. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was also present on stage at the time.
“Rahulji, your great grandfather (Jawaharlal Nehru) gave Punjab the Bhakra (Nangal Dam) and brought in the Green Revolution. We need a second green revolution. You will bring the second green revolution,” said Bajwa in Punjabi.
He added: “In 2024, we will make you PM. You announce that from here. It shouldn’t be such that we give you victory and you make someone else the PM. We will not accept this. Hear this from us today, from this stage. You will be PM. We will not accept a farzi one. Earlier some were brought in. We will not accept anyone other than you. You will bring a second green revolution in Punjab.”
A little later, Chaudhary interrupted Bajwa and asked him to repeat the lines in Hindi.
Bajwa then proceeded to say that he didn’t want a “proxy PM” and that in the past “proxy PMs had done a lot of harm to the people”.
While Bajwa did not name Manmohan Singh, it has been assumed in political circles that he was referring to the two-term PM who led successive UPA governments from 2004 to 2009 and 2009 to 2014.
At the time, a common jibe for Singh was that he was the “proxy PM” while then Congress president Sonia Gandhi ran the government as the “de facto PM”.
ThePrint contacted Bajwa and Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring via calls, Whatsapp calls and messages for a comment on the same, but a response was not received at the time of publishing this report.
‘Lost all sense of propriety to impress bosses’
Bajwa’s comments led to a political showdown in Punjab’s political circles.
Former Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar, who quit the party last year to switch to the BJP, said that Rahul Gandhi should have reprimanded Bajwa on stage for “insulting” the former PM.
“It seems Congress leaders have not learnt lessons from the previous acts of indiscretion committed by them against the honour and dignity of Manmohan Singh while he was holding the office of the prime minister,” said Jakhar, who is now a member of the BJP’s national executive.
Jakhar further said the Congress was tarnishing its own legacy.
“Difficult to envision what benefit they (Congress) are trying to draw by walking 300 km in Punjab just to tarnish the legacy of their own decisions of choosing a prime minister to lead the nation,” he added.
“Some Congress leaders, in their desperation to win favour with their bosses, seem to have forgotten all sense of propriety,” he further said.
In a tweet, Akali leader Sukhbir Singh Badal said Rahul Gandhi’s silence on Bajwa’s comments displayed the “anti-Sikh” mentality of the Gandhi family.
Bajwa, in response to Jakhar’s comments, hit out at his former party colleague for raking up the issue.
“No amount of attempts by Sunil Jakhar and the likes of him in the saffron party can derail the Bharat Jodo Yatra by raising frivolous & insignificant issues,” Bajwa said in a tweet Saturday.
“Jakhar & Capt Amarinder have failed to utter even a single word on the controversial parole given to Gurmit Ram Rahim who is convicted of rape & murder. Their silence on the sexual exploitation of women wrestlers is equally baffling (sic),” he added.
In the media, Bajwa was quoted as saying that Jakhar and Amarinder Singh (former Punjab CM and Congress leader, now in the BJP) “hobnobbed with the BJP” to “destabilise the Congress party”.
“First double-faced and hypocritical politicians such as Jakhar and the likes of him in the BJP tried to discredit the Bharat Jodo Yatra by raising insignificant issues such as pointing a finger at the colour of Rahul Gandhi’s turban. Now the same people, after being ruffled by the success of the yatra, do not want Rahul to be projected as the prime minister,” he added.
Bajwa, however, neither confirmed nor denied that his comment at Thursday’s rally was directed towards Manmohan Singh.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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