Hours after Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi criticized the UPA Government's decision to bring ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today said the issues raised will be will be considered on his return to India after due deliberations in the Cabinet.
"The Ordinance cleared by the Cabinet pertaining to the Representation of the People Act has been a matter of much public debate. The Congress Vice-President has also written to me on the issue and also made a statement," said Dr. Singh in a statement.
"The Government is seized of all these developments. The issues raised will be considered on my return to India after due deliberations in the Cabinet," he added.
The Prime Minister is presently in Washington on a five-day visit to the United States to meet President Barack Obama and to attend the 68th session of the UN General Assembly.
In a major embarrassment to the Congress-led UPA II Government, Rahul Gandhi earlier today dubbed the ordinance to negate the Supreme Court verdict on convicted lawmakers as 'complete nonsense', and said it should be torn up and thrown away.
"I personally think what the government is doing on the ordinance is wrong. It was a political decision, every party does it, and there is a time to stop this nonsense," Gandhi said.
"It is about time that political parties mind and stop making these types of compromises. If we actually want to stop corruption then we cannot make these compromises," he added.
The developments came a day after President Pranab Mukherjee summoned senior Cabinet ministers Sushil Kumar Shinde, Kamal Nath and Kapil Sibal for consultations on the ordinance pending before him for signature.
The Union Cabinet had approved an ordinance to reverse the Supreme Court judgment mandating the immediate disqualification of lawmakers convicted for a criminal offence punishable with a jail term of more than two years.
The ordinance seeks to reverse the Supreme Court judgement that had not only disqualified lawmakers convicted of offences with two years or more in jail, but also barred from contesting elections.
