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The Rediff Interview/ Madhavrao Scindia

'We did not expect Pawar to raise the issue'

Madhavrao Scindia, the Congress general secretary in charge of Maharashtra affairs, is confident that the party will emerge stronger from the current crisis.

He told Onkar Singh that party leaders knew about Sharad Pawar's line of thinking but did not realise that he would pick up the Bharatiya Janata Party agenda and harm their interests.

Congress officials and party chief ministers have resigned from their posts, saying unless the Congress president takes back her resignation they will also quit. What has been Sonia Gandhi's reaction to all this?

She did not say anything. We told her how we felt about the whole issue. What our sentiments were. She is the undisputed leader of the Congress party and in the eventuality of her not accepting our demand to take back her resignation, in that event the letters handed over by us to her should be considered as our resignation. We offered our resignations from our posts and membership of the Congress Working Committee.

In what capacity did you meet her?

We met her in our capacity as general secretaries of the party. There were seven of us who went to meet her.

Do you think this controversy is going to affect your vote bank in Maharashtra and elsewhere in the General Election?

Let me tell you that no individual is bigger than the party. In the past we have seen big leaders leaving the party, floating their own outfits and later coming back to the Congress. They went out like tigers and came back like lambs.

Maharashtra has been historically a very progressive state. The state has a tradition. A tradition of enlightenment. A tradition of secularism. These have been the rules since the days of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Even in modern days this continues to be guiding factors of this state. All individuals add to the strength of the party. If one of us departs it does not mean the party collapses. I am sure the people of Maharashtra in particular will give their verdict in favour of the Congress party.

Are you contemplating action against the three leaders?

So far they have written a one-to-one letter to the Congress president. They wanted this issue to be discussed by the working committee and it was precisely why the working committee was called. (Purno) Sangma was intimated about it before he left for the USA. Pawar was also told about it and yet he went to Mumbai and is continuing to stay there. Even Tariq Anwar who was in Delhi did not attend the meeting on the plea that all the three of them should be there before the issue was discussed in the CWC.

Were you aware that this was coming? Did the Maharashtra MPs tell you that Pawar had discussed the issue with them?

We knew he had been raking up this issue on some pretext or the other. He may have other issues at the back of his mind. But he did not raise them. Instead he picked the issue which the BJP has been harping on for sometime now. We did not expect Pawar to raise the issue in view of the fact that he was one of those who had been praising Mrs Sonia Gandhi ever since she took over as the Congress president. He also said she was fit to be the prime minister of the country. For some reason he has kicked up a row and now we are seized of the matter.

What is worse is that he is continuing to defend his stand in television interviews. This is gross indiscipline. We would have to take action against them. Yes, the members of Parliament from Maharashtra had told me about the discussion they had with him on this matter.

What did they tell you?

Even if they had told me about it, I am not going to tell the press about it.

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