 "Will form UPA-III: Rahul Gandhi")
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday sought to boost his party's morale by affirming there would be a Congress-led UPA-III, even as he hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for "inexcusable failure" of governance during the 2002 riots, for which he demanded "legal accountability".
Debunking opinion polls predicting heavy losses for the Congress, the party's chief campaigner acknowledged there was a "certain amount of anti-incumbency against us", but maintained it would do better than the 2009 elections, when it had won 206 seats in the face of similar grim predictions.
Gandhi said, "Congress is fighting a challenging election and we will win the election." Sharply differing with the views expressed by senior party leader and Finance Minister P Chidambaram that the Congress was an underdog and faced an uphill task, he said, "No, it (Congress) is not an underdog...it is not facing an uphill task."
Contending Modi was answerable on moral grounds, Gandhi said, "Beyond that, there should be a legal accountability for the clear and inexcusable failure of governance under him."
On Modi being given a clean chit by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the post-Godhra riots, he said, "As you know, the SIT report had been seriously questioned by a number of credible experts. Grave flaws have been pointed to in the functioning of the SIT. The acceptance of the flawed SIT report by the lowest court has not yet been subjected to judicial scrutiny by higher courts. The specific allegations and evidence pointing to Modi's responsibility in the 2002 riots are yet to be adequately probed. Any talk of his having been given a clean chit may be politically expedient, but is far too premature. There are many unanswered questions. There is a lot more the country needs to know."
On the failure of the United Progressive Alliance government and his party to communicate with the people, Gandhi admitted, "Certainly, we could have been more aggressive in conveying our achievements. As I said, we have done transformatory work. We could always be better in communication."
Rubbishing the perception that Congress was losing allies, the party vice-president said it had alliances with the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the National Conference but had lost the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Asked if the Congress could "do business" with TMC and DMK again, Gandhi replied, "We are always willing to work with people who share our ideology and political philosophy, who are determined to fight sectarian and communal forces that seek to divide India for narrow political gains."
Contending that his power was being "overestimated", Gandhi disclosed he had differed with the government on a number of issues but "I have been overruled" like on the question of making the Lok Pal a constitutional body.
Debunking opinion polls predicting heavy losses for the Congress, the party's chief campaigner acknowledged there was a "certain amount of anti-incumbency against us", but maintained it would do better than the 2009 elections, when it had won 206 seats in the face of similar grim predictions.
Gandhi said, "Congress is fighting a challenging election and we will win the election." Sharply differing with the views expressed by senior party leader and Finance Minister P Chidambaram that the Congress was an underdog and faced an uphill task, he said, "No, it (Congress) is not an underdog...it is not facing an uphill task."
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In his sharpest attack on Modi over the post-Godhra riots, he dismissed the talk of a clean chit to the Gujarat chief minister as "politically expedient" but "far too premature".
Contending Modi was answerable on moral grounds, Gandhi said, "Beyond that, there should be a legal accountability for the clear and inexcusable failure of governance under him."
On Modi being given a clean chit by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the post-Godhra riots, he said, "As you know, the SIT report had been seriously questioned by a number of credible experts. Grave flaws have been pointed to in the functioning of the SIT. The acceptance of the flawed SIT report by the lowest court has not yet been subjected to judicial scrutiny by higher courts. The specific allegations and evidence pointing to Modi's responsibility in the 2002 riots are yet to be adequately probed. Any talk of his having been given a clean chit may be politically expedient, but is far too premature. There are many unanswered questions. There is a lot more the country needs to know."
On the failure of the United Progressive Alliance government and his party to communicate with the people, Gandhi admitted, "Certainly, we could have been more aggressive in conveying our achievements. As I said, we have done transformatory work. We could always be better in communication."
Rubbishing the perception that Congress was losing allies, the party vice-president said it had alliances with the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Rashtriya Lok Dal and the National Conference but had lost the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Asked if the Congress could "do business" with TMC and DMK again, Gandhi replied, "We are always willing to work with people who share our ideology and political philosophy, who are determined to fight sectarian and communal forces that seek to divide India for narrow political gains."
Contending that his power was being "overestimated", Gandhi disclosed he had differed with the government on a number of issues but "I have been overruled" like on the question of making the Lok Pal a constitutional body.