Unless he puts an alternative in place to handle the situation, I don’t think Rahul Gandhi should just leave the position,” the former Karnataka Chief Minister told PTI. (File photo) Unless he puts an alternative in place to handle the situation, I don’t think Rahul Gandhi should just leave the position,” the former Karnataka Chief Minister told PTI. (File photo)

Lashing out at Congress’ Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh for saying that “demonising” Narendra Modi all the time “was not an effective strategy”, senior leader M Veerappa Moily Wednesday blamed the former for “policy paralysis” during the UPA-2 government.

“As if the Congress is demonising (Modi)”, Moily countered Ramesh. “He (Ramesh) is responsible for policy paralysis of our Government (UPA-2) and he is also responsible for compromising the principles of governance many a time”, Moily was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Moily, the former Union minister, also castigated Congress’ Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor for his statement that praising Modi for doing the right things would lend credibility to the opposition’s criticism of him.

Moily’s comments came out a day after the Congress high command expressed its disapproval of the remarks made by Tharoor, Jairam Ramesh and Abhishek Singhvi. At the party briefing on Tuesday, senior leader Anand Sharma said, “If the Opposition indulges in singing paeans (of the government), then it will spell doom for democracy.” He said the party’s Kerala unit has the right to make a statement and argued that it is not the Congress that is insulting the BJP leadership but the saffron party which has been demonising its leadership, including former Prime Ministers.

Describing the statements as “most unfortunate”, Moily called on the Congress leadership to take appropriate disciplinary action against the two leaders. He further said Ramesh’s remark was in “very bad taste,” and accused the leader of “compromising himself” with the BJP with such a statement.

“And any leader who would like to give such statement, I think, they are not doing service to Congress party or the its leadership,” he said.

Read | Kerala Congress chief seeks explanation from Shashi Tharoor, party backs state unit

Stating that Tharoor was never considered as a mature politician, Moily said, “He (Tharoor) is often on and off fond of giving statements and finding his place in the press. That’s all.”

“I don’t think his statement could be taken that seriously. He has to become a serious politician. That’s our plea”, he added.

Moily, a former Karnataka Chief Minister, stressed the need for the Congress leadership to take immediate steps to rejuvenate the party both at the AICC and State levels, saying there is no alternative to such initiatives. “We should not delay (taking those steps) just because there are elections (coming up) in two-three States.

With PTI inputs

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