Pawar says Congress needs strong,decisive leader like Indira Gandhi

“The outcome of recent polls in four states have raised questions that require serious thinking from not only the Congress,but the rest of us too. The youth played a big role in this polls that led to Congress’s defeat. They used the ballot to vent out their anger. People need strong,decisive and result oriented leaders. They do not want weak rulers,but they want those who will formulate policies and programmes for poor and implement them with firmness,” Pawar wrote on his blog.

NCP sources later said Pawar was not seeking to attack the Congress leadership but was only drawing attention to the need for “deep introspection” given that the middle-classes had abandoned the Congress in Delhi and such trends could affect its allies also.

Pawar blogged that young voters had their say in these elections and they have given a clear indication of their anger through the ballot. They want leaders who are decisive about their stands and do not hesitate to roll out policies that help people.

“When such confidence is lacking in the rulers,other power centers are likely to spring. This was the big lesson to be learnt from the Assembly election results. Of late,weak leadership at various levels has given rise to bunch of pseudo ‘activist’ who has no connect with ground reality,” Pawar wrote.

“It is observed that not only media but also people in govt get influenced by these people. They come up with unrealistic ideas and impression gets created that they are representing people’s feelings which is not true,” the NCP chief said, in comments that could also be seen as targeting the NAC which was instrumental in the enactment of the Food Security Bill despite Pawar’s reservations about its impact on farmers.

“Whenever there was a strong and decisive leadership,such forces never came to the fore. Take example of our late Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi. She was strong and decisive. She took bold decisions such as nationalisation of banks or ending privy purses,which she implemented with conviction and firmness. During her time,such elements that has no connect with the ground reality never surfaced. Unlike today,that whole class of people,who are always willing to give their free advice on every matter,was absent then. Such is the clout of these free advisors,that people from the media as well as the government fall prey to them and start believing that the opinions of these advisors are those of the people. We need to think about this too (sic),” said Pawar.

Pawar sought to explain in detail the reason for the spike in onion prices that appeared to have worked against the Congress government in Delhi and took a dig at the AAP for its promise to bring down the prices. He said the AAP was likely to come to power when re-elections are held after Central rule in Delhi.

“Once in power,I would like to see them bringing down prices of onions,vegetables and electricity. Only then will the public know the truth about their campaign because the states really have no control over these prices. The fluctuation in prices depends on the supply of goods. Important factor that influenced these elections is new voter in these states. The youth has clearly shown its anger in these elections and we need to find why they are angry. We also need to think about the class of people who are trying to influence and change public opinion through their impractical ideas. If a leader can be confident and decisive about his people oriented policies,then he will not have to contend with such new power centers.

Pawar had some praise for the BJP leaders of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

“Approach taken by the chief ministers of both these states in areas like agriculture seems to have benefitted BJP apart from many other factors,” he said,adding that Delhi is a “pampered” state because it gets special treatment as the national capital.