LK Advani

New Delhi, Oct. 4: L.K. Advani has said the withdrawal of the ordinance on convicted legislators was Pranab Mukherjee’s victory, not that of Rahul Gandhi.

A blog the BJP patriarch posted today was titled: “It’s Pranab-da, not Rahul, who saved the situation.”

Relegated to the backseat in the Narendra Modi dispensation, Advani appeared to indirectly claim credit for the BJP delegation, including himself, that had met the President to oppose the ordinance on September 26.

“At the end of our meeting, we got the clear impression that he was convinced that the situation merited his intervention,” Advani wrote.

When Mukherjee summoned senior Congress ministers thereafter, he said, it was a sign of things going wrong. Advani claimed the President conveyed to the ministers that he had issues about signing the ordinance. Had Mukherjee returned it, it would have been a “major setback” for the UPA, he said.

Advani conjectures that “perhaps” at this juncture, Sonia got down to “damage control” and used Rahul. “It is obvious, however, that no one advised him how precisely he was to carry out this task. The objective would have been fully served if Rahul had simply said that the decision taken by the government needs to be reviewed,” he said.

The Congress vice-president had not offered a single argument to explain why he thought the ordinance was “nonsense”, Advani said. The BJP, he said, had pointed out its “illegality and unconstitutionality” and that it was “procedurally wrong”.

Clearly stung that Rahul had walked away with all the credit, Advani remarked on how “superficial” the media was in describing the ordinance withdrawal as his “victory”.

“The victory that has come to the country by the withdrawal of this illegal… ordinance has thus been thanks only to the Rashtrapati,” Advani wrote, adding Mukherjee had proved that the UPA would “seriously err” in assuming that he would be a “rubber stamp” President.

“Rahul’s victory is really confined to rubbing off UPA’s authority and not merely the PM’s. From day one, UPA has always meant Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi. So the ‘nonsense’ slur hurled at the cabinet-approved ordinance can’t apply only to the PM and his ministers. Soniaji must also share responsibility.”