Sonia used Rahul to control damage caused by ordinance, says Advani

LK Advani has lashed out at the Congress for projecting Rahul  Gandhi as some sort of a ’lone survivor’ who held fort against the government’s ordinance designed to protect criminal MPs and MLAs. The senior BJP leader said that Sonia Gandhi can’t wash her hands off responsibility in this issue. In a strongly worded blog post, Advani wrote, “With the Cabinet deciding on Wednesday to withdraw the Ordinance as well as the Bill pending before Parliament in respect of convicted MPs and MLAs yet another ugly chapter in the unflattering history of the UPA Government has ended. That most of the media reports on this development have described it as a victory for Rahul Gandhi is a comment on how superficial the media generally has become these days.” Advani then goes on to point out that it was in fact BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and himself who had visited the President on 26 September and asked the President to not sign the controversial ordinance. [caption id=“attachment_1152227” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sonia Gandhi and LK Advani in this file photo. PTI[/caption] Advani took Sonia to the cleaners by saying that after the President voiced concerns about signing the ordinance that the Congress ministers were alarmed. Consequently, the ordinance was pulled of and Rahul was used for damage control. He writes,"The President returning the Ordinance to the Government unsigned would have been a major setback for Government. It is then perhaps that Soniaji may have thought of doing some damage control using Rahul for the purpose. It is obvious however, that no one advised him how precisely he was to carry out this task. The objective would have been fully served if Rahul had simply said that the decision taken by the Government needs to be reviewed. What he said instead has made The Indian Express (October 3, 2013) write a caustic editorial captioned “Losing Face”… Rahul’s victory is really confined to rubbing off UPA’s authority, and not merely the Prime Minister’s. From Day One, UPA has always meant Dr Manmohan Singh and Smt Sonia Gandhi." He feels the both Sonia and PM must take responsibility for the ’nonsense’ ordinance. You can read Advani’s full blog here.