'In the Congress, only those people who suck up to the leadership have value. I am not one of them.'
Former Congress and BJP MP Laxman Singh calls his expulsion from the Congress a political punishment for speaking truth to power.
On June 11, 2025, the Congress expelled Laxman Singh -- a five-time MP and veteran leader Digvijaya Singh's younger brother -- for 'anti-party activities' following his scathing criticism of Rahul Gandhi and Robert Vadra.
In this interview with Prasanna D Zore/Rediff, Laxman Singh says the decision was politically motivated and underscores that he was punished for putting 'country first' in the wake of the Pahalgam terror attack.
How do you respond to this decision? Do you see it as justified or politically motivated?
It's totally politically motivated, absolutely politically motivated.
Who do you hold responsible for your expulsion? Politically motivated by whom?
I don't know, I just feel like laughing at them. See, I spoke against terrorism. Have you seen my video?
Yes, I have seen it.
So I spoke against terrorism. And I just said that country first. And if the party doesn't agree with me, they can expel me. So they expelled me.
They've acted very foolishly and they will have to pay for it. In Madhya Pradesh, they'll have to pay heavily for it.
You've been a Congress loyalist for most of your political life. Of course, you are also a BJP MP between 2004 and 2009...
40 years in the Congress, no corruption charge against me, won five Parliamentary elections, three assembly elections. So they don't see all that.
At what point did you begin to feel alienated from the party's leadership?
No, there is no leadership.
I never went to anybody in the Gandhi family or anywhere to get a ticket. They only gave me a ticket. I never went anywhere to ask for a ticket.
The party gave me a ticket and I fought. And I faced challenges. I defeated Kailash Joshi ex-CM (of Madhya Pradesh). I defeated Pyarelal Khandelwal. I defeated Nitish Bhardwaj (former actor who played Krishna in the television serial Mahabharat).
I fought against Sushma Swaraj (Delhi's first woman chief minister and external affairs minister later). So the party gave me a challenge and I took it.
At what point did you begin to feel alienated?
See, respect is given and taken. If you respect somebody, they will respect you. That I do with my friends in the party, people who support me, my supporters, I respect them, they respect me.
In the Congress party, only those people who suck up to the leadership have value. I am not one of them. I perform and I expect some kind of reciprocation.
Now I could have been given any job in the party. I could have been given any job in any state considering my experience. Nothing was done. I met a number of leaders. Nothing.
Why don't you name these leaders who you met?
No, no. What is the point in naming them? What will you achieve? Now I'm out of the party. I have nothing to do with them.
In that sense, then is this expulsion a reflection of the Congress' inability to accommodate internal criticism and alternate voices?
I don't know what the Congress party thinks and what happens to them. I'm out of it. I'm going to consult my workers and then decide what to do. I'll get back to you. But I'm not going to the BJP.
You've spoken about a disconnect between the Congress leadership and the grassroots. And you said Congress will pay heavily. Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?
The Congress is paying heavily; the Congress will pay heavily because they have no connection with grassroots workers. They only have sycophants around them. And people who want to make money out of them, who have made money out of them. I have nothing to do with them.
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