I thought that it would affect the image of the office of the Congress president if I pursued the legal options while remaining president of the party, the former Prime Minister said in a wide-ranging interview to Sunday magazine.
He argued that the Congress president's post was different from others. it (Congress president's post) used to be called Rashtrapati in old days. There is just one in the whole country. I felt that it was important to maintain the image of that office regardless of whether or not I thought there was a case against me.
Rao said there had been murmurings for his resignation ever since the party suffered a debacle in the Lok Sabha elections. There is nothing new about this. It happens every time when there is a defeat.
He said the demand for his resignation had been going on and he was prepared to face it when this court case was dragged out of archives. He asserted that the charges against him were baseless and he had nothing to worry about on this score.
Rao observed that there seemed to be a reluctance on the part of the courts to do away with the complaint without going through the trial stage. Our position was that there was no material to base even the issuance of summons. Though they (court) did not specifically say this, we got the feeling that the court wanted to go through the trial stage to prove this.
He said he spent two months arguing his case and when it looked as though we would have to go through another round of this, I felt awkward about doing this as Congress president.
Rao regretted that there was constant attack on him by his own partymen after he was falsely accused in the case. In this connection, he said BJP president L K Advani was continuing in his post despite the CBI move to chargesheet him in the hawala case. While nobody was opening their mouths in other parties, mouths were open in the Congress. But that is the way it is in the Congress. Everything is open. Nothing is done quietly or in secret, he said.
Asked if his astrologers had predicted that he would step down, the former Congress president said I do not attack much importance to what astrologers say. In my case, they have never been right. Perhaps my birth data is inaccurate.
He denied former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister's reported statement that the Congress-AIADMK alliance for the Lok Sabha elections was negotiated by his astrologer Raghavendra Rao.
I have never sent Raghavendra Rao to her. He never represented me.
Rao said the alliance had been negotiated both by him and Jayalalitha. It was done at our level. There were no intermediaries and no middlemen. Asked to what factors he would attribute the Ccongress's poor performance in the elections, Rao said the reasons were both internal and external. So far as I am concerned, the real answer has to come from the voter himself or herself. I have asked many of my workers to find out from the master himself but this exercise has not been completed.
He admitted that the hawala case damaged the Congress but felt that it could not have been avoided.
Replying to a question, he said the Congress base in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar had eroded by transfer of votes into different parties with different social composition. He said the Congress-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance in Uttar Pradesh had a long-term validity apart from its immediate purpose.
On the Congress working committee call for all congressmen and former Congressmen to come together, Rao said I am with the CWC all the way.
Asked if he would contest for the party president's post in the next organisational elections, he said I shall answer this question properly at the appropriate time. Rao denied the charge of his detractors that he had been soft on the BJP. He said his adversaries had been spreading falsehood in this connection.
Asked if he ever wished to be a charismatic leader like some of his predecessors, he said I have not wished to be anyone different at any time.
On why the economic reforms initiated by his government did not win votes for the Congress, the former Prime Minister said the middle path, reforms with a human face, market plus and all such concepts did not seep down into the party's rank or the people in general. On the contrary, reforms got equated with benefits to the rich, unlimited consumerism and more misery to the people.
On whether he had any regrets or unifinished agenda, he said no regrets. Unfinished agenda is a permanent feature. It will be finished by others. It is futile to think of things I could have done differently unless I had been another person.
