Capt throws weight behind Sonia

Thursday, 19/05/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=157111&boxid=58627&uid=&dat=2016-05-19

Rahul Gandhi can step into Sonia’s shoes if she feels that time has come for her to go

New Delhi/Chandigarh : As the counting of votes in the high-stakes Assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry is taken up on Thursday, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday said that Sonia Gandhi should continue as the party president irrespective of Thursday’s poll outcome in the five states.

However, Singh, a former Punjab Chief Minister and a sitting MP, at the same time said that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi can step into Sonia’s shoes if she feels that time has come for her to go and that she is ‘tired’ of being at the helm of the party since 1997. Exit polls have projected the Congress losing power in Assam and Kerala. “No, not at all,” Singh told an English new channel when asked whether time has come for Rahul to take over as Congress President in the backdrop of suggestions in this regard with Sonia assuming the role of ‘chairman emeritus.’ “I have worked very closely with Soniaji and I think she is a great leader,” said Singh, who returned PPCC president in November last year.

“Sonia has been non-stop in this role since 1997 and she may be tired....may be she feels that time has come that she wants to go and that she is tired of handling this. And in this case the Vice President can take over and Rahul can handle it,” he said.

Upset with Canada, Amarinder ‘turns down’ envoy’s offer for meeting

New Delhi: Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh has turned down Canadian High Commissioner’s request for a meeting, conveying his unhappiness over the Canadian government’s refusal to let him interact with Punjabi diaspora in that country recently.

Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel had written a letter to Amarinder, offering to meet him.

Patel’s letter came after the former Punjab Chief Minister wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to protest the denial of permission to him during his recent trip there.

“Thank you for offering to meet me, or for me to meet your Consul General in Chandigarh. I do not think anything further will emerge from such a meeting as I have expressed my views in full,” Amarinder wrote in response to the envoy’s letter.

Amarinder, a Lok Sabha member, referred to the ‘discriminatory approach’ of the Canadian government in disallowing him from interacting with Punjabi diaspora while representatives of the SAD-BJP alliance and Aam Aadmi Party, who had gone there before him, had been allowed to hold similar meetings.

“Their interactions did not warrant any action by your government. They did their bit and returned to India. In my case, however, the matter took a different turn,” he wrote.

“If, High Commissioner you have such a law, then it must be applicable to all who intend meeting with and speaking to our diaspora in Canada,” the Congress leader added.