Rahul Gandhi

Kanpur, April 4: If there was one thing Rahul Gandhi “fundamentally” disagreed with, it was the “notion of vindictive politics, the idea of whether somebody should be sent to jail or not”.

“It is of no interest to me, it is not good politics,” stressed the Amethi MP, who is campaigning for the Congress in the Bundelkhand region.

If there was another thing that did not interest him, it was hankering after the “politics of positions”.

Rahul’s first assertion was interpreted as an answer to Mulayam Singh Yadav’s charge that if he was voted out of power in Uttar Pradesh, the first thing the Congress-led government in Delhi would do was throw him and Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh in the cooler.

His second was construed as a reply to the campaign against “dynastic politics” which projected him as the Congress’s and, indeed, the country’s heir apparent.

Asked if he would become Prime Minister if it was “handed on a platter”, Rahul said: “In the last Lok Sabha elections, I clearly said I am not into the politics of positions. My politics is about asking youngsters to come into positions where they can impart change, bring in new ideas towards change.”

Ever since Amar was allegedly snubbed by Sonia Gandhi for going “uninvited” to a dinner she hosted just before the UPA coalition was put in place, he has accused her of being “revengeful” towards him and the Samajwadi “parivar”, which includes the Gandhis’ former friends, Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan.

Both Mulayam and Amar have cited examples of this “vindictiveness”. Some of these are Jaya’s disqualification as MP over the office-of-profit issue; the exclusion of Amitabh as guest of honour from the 2005 Goa film festival and the alleged blackout of news of his illness on DD;

Rahul also reacted to the Prime Minister’s defence of P.V. Narasimha Rao in the Babri Masjid demolition.

“Just because I have criticised a person (Rao) on one thing (Babri), it does not mean I have criticised every single thing he has done. Criticism or praise is not a simple thing because every person has multiple facets,” he said.