Ridiculing talk of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi being projected as prime ministerial candidate, the Samajwadi Party Wednesday expressed doubts over the 42-year-old Gandhi scion’s ability to lead the nation.
“Whoever understands Indian politics will say that Rahul Gandhi does not seem to have the qualities to lead the country in view of the challenges it is facing,” Samajawadi Party general secretary Mohan Singh told mediapersons here.
Singh said that in the last two years, Rahul Gandhi had kept mum in the Lok Sabha, even while it was discussing critical issues facing the nation.
Singh said: “During the last two years, we did not get the chance to have Rahul Gandhi’s analysis on any critical issue facing the nation in parliament. When one does not hear him speak, how can one say the country will be secure in his hands?”
Borders under threat in UPA rule, says Mulayam
Attacking the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance on security issue, former defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav Wednesday alleged that the country’s borders from Punjab in the northwest to the areas bordering Nepal in the northeast were under threat.
“There is a threat to our borders, particularly from Punjab to those areas bordering Nepal,” Yadav said while addressing the inaugural session of the Samajwadi Party’s national executive meet here.
Yadav, who was the country’s defence minister between 1996 and 1998, said his party raised the issue in the Lok Sabha.
“The prime minister (Manmohan Singh) then came to me and said he wanted to speak to me separately on the issue. When we spoke, he merely said his government wanted all kinds of support and cooperation.”
Yadav said he was “astonished and sad” that when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited India, “(Manmohan) was talking (in the meeting),(while) he (the Chinese premier) was only listening”.
Yadav referred to Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s concerns over increased Chinese military activity along the border.
“This issue is so important that we took it to the people in the UP (Uttar Pradesh) election earlier this year,” he said.
