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Will not return as Congress chief anytime soon: Rahul Gandhi
Gandhi has held interactions with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee and former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan over the Covid-19 crisis.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday indicated that he will not return as the party chief anytime sooner even as his active involvement in organisational matters and series of conversations with experts on the Covid-19 crisis has fuelled speculation about it.
“...please read my [resignation] letter that I wrote one year ago on that issue,” he said in response to a question about his active involvement being perceived as a sign of his return as the Congress president.
Gandhi resigned as the party chief last year following the party’s drubbing in the 2019 national polls. He tweeted a four-page farewell note listing the reasons why he resigned as the Congress chief on July 3 last year.
In the letter, Gandhi took a dig at his party colleagues for the electoral drubbing and spoke about the lack of support to him, saying he had stood completely alone in the fight against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).
“I personally fought the Prime Minister, the RSS, and the institutions they have captured with all my being. I fought because I love India. And I fought to defend the ideals India was built upon. At times, I stood completely alone and am extremely proud of it,” he wrote.
Gandhi has held interactions with Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee and former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan over the Covid-19 crisis.
Asked about these conversations, he said, “I normally interact with a lot of people. These are interesting conversations. I thought let me give the people of India a glimpse of what the experts think about the present situation. This is the basic idea of such conversations. Whatever I get to learn and understand from these conversations, I wanted to pass it on to other people. Otherwise, there is no specific strategy behind it.”
Gandhi was included in former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh-led 11-member Congress Consultative Committee on the Covid-19 pandemic on April 18.
Asked about his suggestion to Congress chief ministers on taxing diesel, petrol, and alcohol, Gandhi said he will leave these decisions to them. “I do not like advising chief ministers through press conferences. The rule I would say they should follow is to be compassionate, understand that India is going through a very difficult time, that there are people, who are struggling more than others, and be gentle and compassionate and loving towards everybody.”
