Striking back at former Foreign Minister Natwar Singh’s contention that government files were shown to Congress president Sonia Gandhi during the UPA’s first tenure, Maharashtra Chief Minister and then Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chavan has called the allegations “absurd” and “ridiculous”.
However, in an exclusive interview to The Hindu , Mr. Chavan, also said, “To say that a file was taken and shown is completely ridiculous, because the content of a file can always be discussed over the phone or in the core group, so taking a file and showing it is absurd.”
When questioned on the comment, Mr. Chavan explained that policy decisions were always discussed with Ms. Gandhi in the Congress core group meetings, making a distinction between discussions on future policies and actual file notings being shown to a person in a non-Constitutional position. “The government has to discuss policy level decisions with the core group before implementing them… for example in UPA-1, foreign policy decisions like the nuclear deal were even discussed with the Left parties, and they were not in the government... but as far as files are concerned, the Official Secrets Act prevailed.”
Mr. Chavan’s comments are likely to further fuel the controversy over how much information was shared with Ms. Gandhi, given that both >former Media Adviser to the Prime Minister Sanjaya Baru and Mr. Singh have written on the subject in the past few months.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Chavan called their allegations a result of “the personal grievances of individuals whose ambitions were not fulfilled or who thought they were unfairly treated, challenging them to explain what specific knowledge they had about the files being shared”.
No change in seat-sharing deal with NCP
Against the backdrop of aggressive demands by its ally the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for half the assembly seats in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan talked tough, saying he did not want any change in the 2009 seat-sharing formula.
Mr. Chavan said, “Both the State Congress Chief and I do not want a change in the existing formula. We are a larger party than the NCP and the seat-sharing formula has to be an honourable settlement.” Mr Chavan said he had also conveyed his views to the Congress leadership.
In 2009, the Congress had contested 174 seats and the NCP 114 seats. However, after overtaking the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls, the NCP has upped its demand to 144 seats, even threatening to walk out of the alliance.
Mr Chavan clarified the Congress and NCP would contest the polls together but emphasised, “I will be leading the election campaign. That is very clear.” In June, in the midst of speculation about Mr Chavan’s replacement, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had claimed that the Congress had asked him to lead the alliance’s campaign.
On the question of dissident leader Narayan Rane’s resignation, Mr Chavan said the issue would have to be resolved at the level of the party high command. Mr Rane had publicly said he was upset at being denied the Chief Minister’s post, which he was reportedly promised.
“I did not promise him my job so I cannot address his grievance. I politely asked him not to resign. ,” Mr Chavan said.
He also denied that the revolt against the party leadership in states including Maharashtra and Assam was a rejection of Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s leadership. “That’s taking things a bit too far. These are isolated incidents in two-three states because some leaders want bigger roles for themselves,” Mr Chavan said.
Mr Chavan is widely expected to contest the Maharashtra elections after a long hiatus from electoral politics. However he remained circumspect, only saying, “This will be decided by the party at the appropriate time.”
