'No party disowns or discredits it's legacy': Congress leaders rally behind Manmohan Singh amid criticism of UPA govt

'No party disowns or discredits it's legacy': Congress leaders rally behind Manmohan Singh amid criticism of UPA govt

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Saturday, August 01, 2020, 10:29 PM IST
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Manmohan Singh | -- File photo

In recent days, there has been several instances of infighting or dissent within the Congress party. At a state level Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot seem to be good examples of the old vs young war, even though this cannot be taken as a sweeping generalisation.

More recently however, the rift seemed to have made itself felt at a party meeting. Congress president Sonia Gandhi had on Thursday held a meeting with party's the Rajya Sabha members. The meeting however saw several people turning their focus on how a party that had formed the government in 2009 had garnered so few seats in the 2014 polls.

While Senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh, who was the Prime Minister during the 2004-2014 UPA rule, preferred to remain silent, the young guard sought introspection of the UPA rule. The issue of the 2014 election debacle was raised by Rajeev Satav, sources said, adding that he was countered by party senior and former Union Minister Anand Sharma and others even as Sonia Gandhi listened silently to the whole discussion.

Now, a section of Congress leaders have rallied behind Singh. This includes both party veterans and younger leaders who had served in Singh's cabinet.

Former Union minister Anand Sharma took to Twitter with a lengthy thread, urging the party to stand together. "Congressmen must be proud of UPA's legacy. No party disowns or discredits it's legacy. Nobody expects the BJP to be charitable and give us credit but our own should respect and not forget," he tweeted.

Highlighting the efforts of the UPA government, Sharma said that it had "led the country with a sense of purpose and a commitment to the common man". He outlined some of the milestone achievements of the UPA government in 11 tweets.

Fellow Party leader Manish Tewari struck a similar note, drawing a parallel with the presently ruling BJP.

"BJP was out of Power for 10 yrs 2004-14. Not once did they ever blame Vajpayee or his Govt for their then predicaments In @INCIndia unfortunatly some ill -informed ‘s would rather take swipes at Dr. Manmohan Singh led UPA govt than fight NDA/BJP. When unity reqd they divide (sic)" he tweeted, drawing praise from Shashi Tharoor and Milind Deora.

"Well said, Manish. When demitting office in 2014, Dr Manmohan Singh said, “history will be kinder to me”. Could he have ever imagined that some from his own party would dismiss his years of service to the nation & seek to destroy his legacy - that, too, in his presence?" Deora tweeted.

Fellow party leader Shashi Tharoor too was in agreement, urging people to not play into the hands of the party's "ideological enemies".

"UPA's transformative ten years were distorted and traduced by a motivated and malicious narrative. There's plenty to learn from our defeats and much to be done to revive Congress. But not by playing into the hands of our ideological enemies," he tweeted.

(With inputs from agencies)

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