Look within, says Sonia; CMs look away

Vilasrao Deshmukh, just a bit jittery about how long he will continue as Maharashtra Chief Minister, was excessively defensive on the recent communal violence in parts of the state. While Punjab’s Amrinder Singh appeared to shrug as he readily admitted his state’s failure in implementing Panchayati Raj.

Deshmukh, who has only recently recovered from a rash of open criticism and rebellion in his state Congress unit, underscored and then underlined the fact that the communal violence in towns like Solapur and Malegaon hadn’t spread to other regions in the state. ‘‘Don’t forget, it could have been worse. We didn’t let it happen,’’ he added.

Rajasthan’s Ashok Gehlot—the host of the conclave and under fire for starvation deaths in Baran district—found his scapegoat in the Centre. The ‘‘so-called starvation deaths’’ were caused by malnutrition, he said. Gehlot, in fact, tabled a paper titled ‘‘Challenging the drought’’ at the conclave, where he insisted that ‘‘drought transformed into development’ and its ‘‘effective management’’.

In contrast, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh was candid about his shortcomings. ‘‘We have not done well on roads and transport and in the energy sector. Our health index too is not upto the mark. We have to work in these areas,’’ he told The Indian Express.

Digvijay found a fair match in Amarinder Singh when it came to being self-critical. The Punjab chief minister admitted that Panchayati Raj, so dear to the party high command, was a non-starter in his state. He said he would be meeting Digvijay and Karnataka CM S M Krishna for political and administrative tips.

Party spokesman S Jaipal Reddy insisted that the meet wasn’t planned as an accountability test of the chief ministers. ‘‘No CM would completely disclose his weaknesses, but there are areas which are too blatant and obvious to hide. Even Chandrababu Naidu will have to admit the going literacy rate in Andhra Pradesh as his big weakness,’’ he said.

But the CMs may yet be let off the hook, as a senior party leader pointed out, by the fact that one of Sonia Gandhi’s key themes in her own opening address was BJP bashing and the desire to replace the NDA at the Centre.