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Volcker
Report
Action
to be Taken Against Anyone Found Guilty -
Sonia Gandhi
| Sonia
Gandhi: Change of Guard can Bring Development to U.P. |
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NIHALGARH
(AMETHI): The Congress President, Smt. Sonia
Gandhi on 9 November slammed the successive state
governments for failing to bring about development
in the state. Smt. Gandhi, however, hoped the political
climate in Uttar Pradesh would change very soon
for development to take place at a fast pace.
Addressing
party workers and villagers after inaugurating the
Lifeline Express train here, Smt. Gandhi said there
could be several difficulties in carrying out developmental
works, but determined efforts would yield positive
results. "There is lack of resources as well
as political will, which is ruining the state,"
the UPA Chairperson claimed.
Smt.
Gandhi, who represents the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha
seat, said the state governments in UP during the
past several years were more "interested in
politics than solving the people's woes, resulting
in no sustainable development model in the state."
The
Congress President said special efforts had to be
made to usher in development in Amethi and Rae Bareli
and added she wanted upliftment activities to be
undertaken in the entire state.
Local
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said education, employment
and health were the three basic needs of the common
man. "The public health sector in my constituency
is not performing up to the mark … I find very
few doctors in various Public Health Centres (PHC).
Smt.
Gandhi said the Lifeline Express would bridge the
gap between the health facilities available to the
rich and poor. Thousands of people suffering from
various ailments would benefit from the mobile hospital
_ Lifeline Express. Ailments of the eye, ear, nose
and throat would be treated and minor surgeries
undertaken during the next month at the Express.
A
100-bed temporary hospital has also been established
at the Rajiv Gandhi Degree College at Jagdishpur
in the constituency where complex surgeries would
be performed. The Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF)
had organized over 25 Lifeline Express camps in
collaboration with Impact India Foundation Mumbai.
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NEW
DELHI:
The Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi said on 15 November
that action would be taken against anyone found culpable
by the R.S. Pathak Inquiry Authority. The Authority has
been appointed by the Central Government to investigate
the charges in the United Nations-appointed Volcker Committee
Report on the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal.
Taking
questions after addressing a conference organized by the
Hindustan Times, Smt. Gandhi said the findings of the Volcker
Committee had both "hurt" her and made her "very
angry".
She
said if the documents were authentic, then some individuals
had misused the name of the Congress. As soon as the inquiry
report was given, the Government would take action against
any individuals found "not innocent", Smt. Gandhi
promised. "We can no longer look the other way when
such incidents take place."
To
a question whether she was "protecting" the former
External Affairs Minister, Shri Natwar Singh, while Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh wanted him to go, the Congress President
said "this is not accurate."
"I
kept saying that if what has come out, if the documents
are authentic, I shall certainly not protect them [the individuals
involved], she said. According to her, people already looked
at political parties with considerable cynicism _ that all
of them were the same and corrupt. It was "sad and
bad" that people should have such a view of political
parties, she said.
Stressing
that there was a need to correct this impression, the Congress
President said if immediate and credible action was taken
after such incidents [Volcker report], the people were bound
to change their opinion.
It
was necessary, she said, for the Congress to clear its name
in the wake of the allegations made by the Volcker Committee.
When the issue came up, Smt. Gandhi said she took the view
that the Government must institute an inquiry.
She
said she was "fully behind" the Government and
its decision to set up the Pathak Authority. She hoped that
it would get to the "bottom of the issue" and
do it in the shortest possible time. Asked about the impact
on the Manmohan Singh Government of the differences between
the Congress and the Left parties, she said there was not
a single issue that could not be resolved through discussion.
Though 14 parties made the coalition, the United Progressive
Alliance had not faced a serious problem so far. She was
more than confident about the stability of the Government
and suggested that the differences with the Left might be
a "little exaggerated" by the media.
On
whether Shri Natwar Singh was made a scapegoat when the
Congress was "as culpable" as him, Smt. Gandhi
said that when the Volcker Committee report was made public
and his name as well as the party's name figured in it,
she as party president had the duty to clear the name of
the organization. "From the beginning, I was strongly
of the view that the government should institute an inquiry
to go into the bottom of the problem and find it out as
soon as possible," she said.
Smt.
Gandhi also touched on several other issues in the question-and-answer
session. Among them were:
On
Bihar, Smt. Gandhi rejected the possibility of any "negative
effect" of an adverse verdict in Bihar elections on
the UPA coalition at the Centre. "I don't think if
the worst is to happen (in Bihar), it would have a negative
effect on the coalition."
Smt.
Gandhi sought to back her point by, interestingly, citing
the setbacks suffered by the NDA immediately after it came
to power at the Centre. "In 1998, it lost power in
Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Nothing happened to
them. I bank on that experience," she quipped amid
laughter.
On
declining to be PM, Smt. Gandhi has no regrets about not
accepting the Prime Minister's post 18 months back when
the UPA came to power. "I am satisfied … 100 per
cent. It was a right decision. I have no regrets whatsoever."
On
vacations for politicians, "In politics in India, one
would need to be always available, which is not the case
in Japan, where they have weekends. No such luck for us,"
she said while replying to a question from a Japanese delegate
on when she proposed to visit his country. Smt. Gandhi said
that she loved Japan, which she had visited several times,
including with her mother-in-law and her husband.
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