Former Congress Member of Parliament Milind Deora, in an hour-long conversation with Firstpost, spoke his mind on a slew on issues.

Former Congress Member of Parliament Milind Deora, in an hour-long conversation with Firstpost, spoke his mind on a slew on issues, including Rahul Gandhi's elevation as party president, demonetisation, the Congress' poll prospects and his own political journey. Significantly, he recalled that the Congress vice-president had initially taken a positive view on demonetisation and believed it could be a game-changer.

Deora, who represented the Mumbai South constituency from 2004 to 2014, is a prominent urban face of the grand old party, and is the son of the late party veteran Murli Deora.

On demonetisation

Deora said that when demonetisation was announced, the Congress vice-president did not immediately oppose the move. "At the time, the party was saying that we should oppose the move. However, Rahul Gandhi said was that we should wait and he said that this could be a game-changing decision."

The Congress leader said that it was only later that the party criticised the move for bad implementation.

Deora, a former Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, said that he, too, had supported demonetisation when the move was announced by Narendra Modi. "If you look at my Twitter account, you will find that I had put out a tweet just minutes after the announcement saying that it could be a game-changer. I thought that there would be some seamless methodology to bring money in and take money out. But then we realised that the tender for printing notes has gone out the next day. This essentially prevented transactions from happening."

He further remarked, "Demonetisation can be called anything but a reform. If it has been implemented in this manner, then the government has to be attacked. Otherwise, someone could do something despotic again."

Deora also recalled a meeting with a senior official of the United States government and said, "The person said that as part of his job, he had worked with several banana republics, but in his list of craziest decisions, demonetisation would be at the top. He said that it was all the more crazy because it happened in the world's largest democracy."

On Rahul Gandhi

In response to a question about the decision on Rahul Gandhi assuming the role of party president, Deora said, "I believe that it would have served the party if he would have joined the government during UPA-II. It would have been an important stepping stone for the party as well."

Responding to charges over dynastic politics behind Rahul Gandhi's proposed elevation, the Congress leader said, "This is a debate which can be spun in many ways. One argument made is that the post is reserved for one person. However, if someone else becomes the party president or the prime ministerial candidate, then the argument is that this person is a puppet."

Milind Deora's comments came even as Rahul Gandhi is leading the Congress campaign in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat. The Congress vice-president's aggressive campaign in the BJP stronghold has led to political analysts debating whether he is posing a stiff challenge to the saffron party.

"People who know him well know that the content of his ideas is very solid. He has the ability to analyse a problem very meticulously. For example, he correctly understood that there is a major drug problem in Punjab, " Deora said.

On GST

A debate similar to demonetisation — on whether or not to support the Goods and Services Tax — had ensued in the Congress when the legislation was in the Parliament, according to Deora. He recalled that although many in the Congress had said that the party should oppose the passing of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Rahul Gandhi decided against doing so. Gandhi has said in the past that GST was a Congress initiative and that the BJP had not 'understood the spirit' behind the tax.

"Many party leaders at the time said that the BJP had held GST hostage when we were in power, and we should not allow it to pass. Narendra Modi, the biggest proponent of GST, was at the time its biggest opponent. However, Rahul Gandhi said it was important to own it and let it happen," he said.

On Modi and the BJP

The Congress termed Narendra Modi a 'consummate communicator' and said that the party needed to learn from him in that regard. "Communication is important in order to get people to stand behind an idea. While Modi is a consummate communicator, Rahul Gandhi is not as aggressive in his approach, and sometimes, the contrast shows."

Deora, however, criticised the party's lack of concrete welfare measures, saying, "When I speak to friends and colleagues from the BJP, they say that there is an event for every decision. If there is a decision about power, the ministry meetings are about how the event will take place, rather than how power will reach the people. If there is a decision on digitisation, the focus is more on the event surrounding and whether, for instance, the CISCO chairperson is coming for it."

On Mumbai's infrastructure

Speaking on the recent stampede at the Elphinstone Road station in Mumbai, Deora said, "I had written a letter to the railway minister in 2012, and the response was quite similar to the one that Shiv Sena leaders got — that the ministry was 'looking into it.' This indicates that sometimes politicians do their job of raising people's issues, but there is a problem as far as the authorities are concerned."

The Congress leader also called for the mayor to be directly elected as a way to improve the city's administration and said it is a 'good administrative reform'. "There is a huge multiplicity of authorities in the city, because of which issues often get lost," he said. Deora said that the reason this does not get implemented is that state governments, irrespective of parties, do not want to let go of their power.

On his political journey

Deora, who comes from a political family, said that he did not initially plan to get into politics. His entry into the field of social work came when he came from abroad to India, and his father Murli Deora and former prime minister Manmohan Singh set up an institute for computer education in south Mumbai.

"At the age of 27, Rahul Gandhi asked me to contest elections, which was when I entered politics. When I first contested the Mumbai South election, people dissuaded me saying that the BJP would win the seat as well as the national election. However, I believed I had nothing to lose. As it turned out, I won the election and my party also came to power," he recalled.