Rahul Gandhi has gone on a two-week leave, Congress said on Tuesday frowning upon attempts to give various meanings to the action and virtually snubbed party General Secretary Digvijaya Singh who had found fault with the "timing".
"We have made known the whole situation quite clearly. Do not try to find various meanings, possibilities in it and resort to speculation and spread the needle of suspicion. We reject such attempts to speculate other possibilities," party spokesman Randeep Surjewala told reporters.
Replying to a volley of questions, he, however, said Rahul has gone on "two weeks’ leave".
He steered clear of questions whether Rahul is in India or abroad and whether he was angry and sulking. "You should not pay attention to such kind of things", he remarked when a reporter queried further on the issue. Asked about Digvijaya Singh's tweet questioning the timing of Gandhi's leave, Surjewala snapped, "I have not seen his statement. That could be his opinion".
Singh had found fault with the "timing" of Rahul’s sudden sabbatical but defended his decision to take a break for reflecting in the wake of the party's wipe-out in the Delhi assembly elections on top of a string of electoral losses. "If Rahul wans to reflect, what went wrong why criticise him? Every one wants some peace to reflect. Only timing could have been better," Singh tweeted.
"Rahul Gandhi has articulated the Congress viewpoint," Surjewala insisted when a reporter wanted to know whether the vice president should have "led from the front" on the controversial land ordinance.
Meanwhile, Lok Sabha sources said Rahul Gandhi has given no letter to the secretariat about his absence from the House. "We have received no letter," the sources said adding that such a letter is needed when a member wants to take leave for more than three weeks.
Image: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi
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