february 4: There can be no baraat without a bridegroom and the Congress seems to know it well enough. Brihanmumbai Regional Congress Committee president Murli Deora today stunned a roomful of businessmen gathered at the Taj Crystal Room under the aegis of the Rotary Club by naming who he believed would be the future Prime Minister of India.``We will have no problems in identifying the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party, believe me,'' Deora said. ``It will be Dr Manmohan Singh : a person perceived as full of honesty, sincerity, character, integrity. And he knows a little bit about the economic field also, don't you think so?''
Deora attempted to debunk the common perception that the Congress had little but dynasty to fall back upon. ``Sonia Gandhi was asked in 1991 to take over the reigns of the country. She, however, turned down the offer to become the PM. But if she wishes to campaign for the Congress, how can any one stop her?'' he asked.
And this campaign must mean something, he saidbecause ``people are coming in droves to listen to her. ``When Indira Gandhi was on her comeback trail in 1980, every `forecaster' predicted that she would get not more than 174 seats. And if Sonia Gandhi is getting response today, it is from the poor, those living in slums and ghettos and the villages of India. That is where the verdict lies. No, I am sorry to say, with the country's elite sitting in their ivory towers who do not even bother to vote at the elections.''
The daggers were, however, out for his party's main rival, the BJP, as a majority of those who listened to him appeared to support the saffron party, holding it up as cleaner than the Congress.
Deora whipped out a newspaper supplement published more than a month ago which had projected Atal Behari Vajpayee as ``The Man India Awaits'' and said, ``Do you know each full page ad in this papers costs Rs 28.5 lakh? Even I take out ads but do you know who paid for this supplement? Should I name the contractors who were blacklisted by theBrihanmumbai Municipal Corporation over the years for building bridges which collapsed or substandard hospitals? They were the ones who shelled out the money for it. Obviously these contractors had something to gain. So such a deal is not corruption?''
Deora also declared that India was not suited to coalition governments. ``I beg to disagree with those who say that coalitions are here to stay. Our system is time-tested to benefit only a single-party rule. And today even the BJP, which has little presence in 16 states or two thirds of the country, is running with a 15-party coalition.'' Admitting that many Congressmen were corrupt, he distanced himself from graft by describing himself as ``a businessman with my own money. So I do not need other sources of income.'' When told that he was perhaps the right man in the wrong party, Deora said he did not care. ``I have stood by my party. Do you want me to become a defector? If you won't be loyal to your own party, can you be trusted to be loyal to anythingelse, including your own country?'' he added.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
