Politics: S M Krishna, a senior minister in the previous UPA government, has spoken about how Rahul Gandhi would exercise “extra-constitutional authority” on the Manmohan Singh government despite not being even general secretary of the Congress.
Krishna, who quit the Congress in 2017 and joined the BJP, said the environment for governance during the UPA government was not conducive because of the coalition.
Krishna was the external affairs minister under Manmohan Singh from May 2009 till October 2012.
“Rahul Gandhi was then a nobody, not even a general secretary. He issued a diktat that those who turned 80 can’t be a minister. When I heard that, I submitted my resignation and came to Bangalore,” Krishna said on Saturday.
Krishna also criticized Rahul Gandhi for once tearing an ordinance and said, “There were matters that were never brought to the notice of even the ministers. The Cabinet was in discussion over passing an ordinance. But Rahul Gandhi who was somewhere in public tore a copy of the ordinance to bits. This is what they call extra-constitutional authority. He (Rahul Gandhi) was not answerable to anyone – neither Parliament nor governance.”
Alleging further that the environment was not conducive for governance during UPA rule, Krishna blamed compulsions of coalition politics for alleged scams during Manmohan Singh-led government.
“In my second tenure during UPA, I was minister for External Affairs. I was also part of the Cabinet joint responsibility framework. It was not a conducive environment for governance. There was a coalition government and because of that nobody could say anything to the other about their conduct. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister but had no control over his Cabinet colleagues. It was during that period that scams broke out,” said Krishna.
Krishna also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for leading the country on a path of development and for his biggest contribution of a scam-free government.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]