Sanat rules out joining NCP

Mehta said, "Even senior Congress leaders like Madhavrao Scindia, Pranab Mukherjee, Arjun Singh and M L Fotedar have at some time or the other defected, but not me." He said, "I did not want to create a drama. That is why I decided not to renew my membership instead of resigning. This decision is ideological, and not because I was not given a ticket to contest the Surendranagar Lok Sabha seat."

He said from day one of the economic liberalisation, ushered in by his own party in 1991, he had been saying that opening of the economy should be linked to the human face for the country had a large population staying in poverty. "Liberalisation in a developing country differs from the same in an advanced one," he said.

Congress wrote about the human face in its manifesto. "Then, Nobel laureate Amartya Sen stated that unless liberalisation was linked to social development, it will not give the desired results," Mehta recalled. Even during the Pachmarhi executive meeting of the Congress some months ago, "this aspect was reiterated. But, nothing actually happened. The Exim Policy then assaulted the domestic industry as 700 more items were put in the Open General Licence (OGL) category. I am fighting for the cause of cotton growers, and was pained to see that nine lakh bales of cotton were imported," Mehta bemoaned. But despite this, the party was silent."

"Sonia Gandhi spoke of revving up the party. I prepared a 64-page document quoting from United National Development Programme, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and discussed various aspects on which the party should work on. Congress’ true constituency was the poor, who are actually secular and democratic, but it has lost them," Mehta said.

He said he could no longer wait for the party to learn its lessons. "Even in the State, Congress as a party is losing its grip," Mehta lamented. He recalled that during the budget session of the State Assembly, the Congress demanded that the ruling BJP declare support prices for onions.

"I was amused to find that neither the ruling party nor the Opposition was aware that there cannot be support prices for onions. There is only the Market Intervention Scheme for onions," he said. This explains the state of affairs.