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Cong gives in to SP tirades
Pioneer News Service | New Delhi
Drops Chaturvedi as party spokesperson
Caving under the Samajwadi Party, the Congress is likely to remove senior leader Satyavrat Chaturvedi from the post of party spokesman. In a bid for rapprochement with the SP, the Congress also publicly discredited Chaturvedi’s disparaging statements against SP general secretary Amar Singh.
Chaturvedi’s past comment that Amar Singh needed to get “mental treatment” had sparked a public spat between the two leaders. A similar comment by him on Wednesday revived the bitterness.
Two days after the SP leaders met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resolve the deadlock over alliance talks between the two parties, the Congress on Thursday sent out clear signals that statements made by Chaturvedi did not have official sanction. Speaking to mediapersons, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said: “Satyavrat Chaturvedi is a respected leader of the party. But the views expressed by him are his own. The party does not subscribe to them.”
Chaturvedi has not addressed a single Congress Press conference for over a year and his interaction with media is limited to providing sound bytes to TV channels. He does not even attend the meetings of spokespersons taken by media department chairman M Veerappa Moily.
However, PTI later said Chaturvedi had been dropped as Congress spokesperson.
Amar Singh welcomed this move and said: “If it is true then I am really obliged to the Congress party. It will help strengthen the relationship between SP and Congress. If someone in my party speaks against Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan Singh he will be expelled.”
According to sources, when SP leaders met the Prime Minister on Tuesday they raised the issue of attack by Congress leaders against the SP and asked if such statements did not have party leadership's sanction then Congress should clarify this publicly and demonstrate its intentions on the alliance.
Even after this meeting, Chaturvedi did not let go. On Wednesday, he repeated his statement. He said: “Main phir se dohra raha hoon ki unko apna ilaaj karwana chahiye (I am repeating that he needs to get his treatment done).”
Sources said that Chaturvedi has been given instructions to keep quiet right now.
On Thursday, Chaturvedi did not speak to the media at all even as there was a clamour among TC channels to get his reaction on the party distancing itself from his remarks.
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