Words were perhaps too strong, but sentiment was honest: Rahul

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today defended his outburst over the ordinance protecting convicted lawmakers and said he regretted the strong language he had used, but said the sentiment behind it was honest.

“My mother told me the words you used were perhaps too strong, maybe in hindsight it is true, but the sentiment was honest,” Rahul said while addressing a rally in Gujarat today, reported CNN-IBN.

Taking into consideration the fact that the Congress was a part of an alliance he reportedly said, “The stand that I took on ordinance is actually detrimental and harmful from the alliance point of view.”

The Congress leader said that he had been “flabbergasted” by the ordinance passed by the UPA government seeking to protect convicted lawmakers.

Without blaming anyone in the government for its decision on the controversial ordinance, Rahul reportedly said that centralisation of power in the Congress was a problem.

“Too few people run this company,” he reportedly said.

Rahul also said that the Congress would have been a completely different machinery if his father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi would have been alive.

The Congress leader had gate crashed Ajay Maken’s press conference on the ordinance on 27 September and had said that the ordinance was “complete nonsense”.

“I tell you what my opinion on the ordinance is: That it is complete nonsense. It should be torn up and thrown away. That’s my opinion,” Rahul had said.

While the statement had attracted criticism from the opposition and some allies, the Cabinet had withdrawn the controversial ordinance and the legislation in Parliament that would have offered a lifeline to convicted lawmakers.