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Candidates are defeated when party lacks somewhere, says Union minister Gadkari
He was speaking at an award function organised by the Pune District Urban Co-operative Banks Association
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, who is known to make candid observations, raised eyebrows on Saturday when he analysed the typical behaviour of political parties in the face of electoral victories and defeats.
Speaking at an award function organised by the Pune District Urban Co-operative Banks Association, Gadkari said that he once told a defeated candidate that he failed “because the party lacked somewhere and he failed to get the people’s confidence.”
Quoting the famous adage that ‘success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan,” Gadkari said the leadership should have the courage to own responsibility for failure in politics.
Presenting awards to banks with least NPAs (non-performing assets), he said, “Sometimes banks achieve success and sometimes they face failure. Success and failure is part of every sector. In politics, when there is failure, a committee is formed. Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. Whenever there is a success, there will be a race to take credit, but in the case of failure, everybody will start showing fingers at each other.”
Gadkari’s remarks raised eyebrows given the recent electoral defeats suffered by the BJP in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh assembly polls.
Without naming any individual or party, Gadkari spoke at length on electoral defeats.
“In politics, after suffering defeat in any state or Lok Sabha elections, the candidates starts complaining that they did not get enough time for campaigning, enough funds or support from the party,” Gadkari said. He elaborated by saying that he would advise defeated candidates not to transfer the blame of defeat to others. “The leadership should have the courage to own the responsibility of defeat and failure. Till the time the leadership does not accept responsibility for failure; it will not find loyalty towards the organisation,” he said.
Speaking on banking issues, he said there is a need to bring transparency and accountability in the banking system. Banks should be helped if the mistakes are bonafide; but they should be punished, if the mistakes are deliberate.
He advised banks to come to the assistance of one another as there was greater awareness among the public due to Information Technology, Right to Information (RTI) and general awareness among the public.
He said it was important to ensure transparency and a corruption-free system.
Gadkari lauded the success of co-operative movements in Maharashtra and Gujarat and said this success needs to be “marketed in Delhi as nobody knows the cooperative movement in the national capital.”
