Shashidhar Reddy condemns remarks by Jairam Ramesh

Hyderabad: Senior Congress leader and former Minister Marri Shashidhar Reddy on Tuesday advised senior leader Jairam Ramesh to refrain from making statements that can damage the prestige of the organisation. In a statement here, Shashidhar Reddy said that he was surprised to find that Jairam Ramesh had said that senior leaders should act as “mentors and not as tormentors” in an interview.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala had to step in to give clarification on the incident. A similar incident took place in August 2017, when Ramesh said that Congress was facing an “existential crisis”. “It is like a foot-in-the-mouth syndrome! I suggest that Jairam Ramesh should refrain from making such comments repeatedly, necessitating official denial or rebuttal from the All India Congress Committee (AICC),” Shashidhar Reddy said.

He took strong objection to an observation made by Jairam Ramesh that “Rahul Gandhi is a ‘full-time politician’ post-Gujarat.” Shashidhar said, “this is totally misleading and could even be termed as mischievous.”

AICC President Rahul Gandhi had more than once said that his new team would be a combination of youth and experience. In an interview in the National Herald newspaper, a day after he formally took over as AICC President on December 16, 2017, Gandhi said, “We would like to bring in as many new faces, young faces, exciting faces, and dynamic faces (as we could). That is not to say that people who are experienced or older should not have space.”

Shashidhar Reddy said when Rahul Gandhi was going to take over as president of the party, he had mentioned that there is an urgent need for Kamaraj Plan: Version II and suggested that all members of the CWC and AICC office bearers to submit their resignations to give a free hand to reorganise and revamp the Congress party so that there would be new look party organisation at the national level, with new faces - a mix of young and old.