Congress snubs Arjun Singh again

"We do not agree with it. Congress President Sonia Gandhi has always been fair and transparent in holding consultations," AICC spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed said. He said consultations were held at every level in the party before taking decisions and the party President also held discussions with the various allies in the UPA. Arjun Singh is also a member of the Congress Working Committee, in which the leaders can raise whatever issue they want and can have a free and frank discussion, Ahmed said.

Maintaining that the Congress has always had a tradition of holding discussions within the party, he denied suggestions that the leadership has any lack of communication or a trust deficit with any leader. To a question that the CWC meetings are generally being held for obituary references, he claimed that they were regular meetings of the apex policy making body of the party.

Arjun Singh had in an interview to noted journalist Kanhaiyalal Nandan in a book edited by him titled "Mohin Kahan Vishram" said: "Earlier there were many opportunities to contribute to the decision and even major decisions of the Congress were taken after going through the process of consultations and people used to accept it. "But now this process has fallen into a bit of disarray and when people do not have feeling that they have contributed to the decision making process, then they have no hassles in defying it," Singh said.

Ahmed, however, refused to directly comment on the book, saying, "I will not comment on the book before it is released and I don't know whether such an interview is there."

This is the second time in a month that the HRD Minister has found himself at odds with the party high command. His statement that there was nothing wrong in projecting Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Ministerial candidate in the next elections had received a strong rebuff from the party leadership, with the AICC saying that Sonia and Rahul stayed away from an environment of sycophancy.