Gandhi’s call to disband Congress visionary: Venkaiah Naidu

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on March 26 hailed Mahatma Gandhi as a visionary for his call to disband the Congress. Naidu, a senior BJP leader before his elevation to the top Constitutional post in 2017, also lauded the Narendra Modi government, mentioning a slew of flagship initiatives, including ease of doing business.

In remarks coming just ahead of polling for the Lok Sabha elections, the Vice President said Gandhi had spoken for the need to disband the Congress after Independence.

Speaking at the convocation of the RBI-promoted Indira Gandhi Institute of Developmental Research here, Naidu said this was political advice from Gandhi, adding he doesn’t wish to dwell on it now as he is no longer in active politics.

“Mahatma Gandhi had such a vision. After Independence, he gave two advices. One is political, I don’t want to dwell on that. He said disband the Congress. That was the first advice. Congress was a platform of different shades of people coming together to fight for Independence. He (Gandhi) said Independence is achieved. So disband this (Congress) and start your own parties. That is not an issue for us today and moreover I am not in politics and don’t want to speak politics also,” Mr. Naidu said.

The other visionary advice given by the Father of the Nation was to concentrate on rural development, Naidu said.

In his over 50-minute speech, Naidu mentioned a slew of flagship schemes and initiatives of the Modi government and how they have driven change on the ground. He said these include ease of doing business, Make in India, GST, demonetisation, direct benefit transfer, JAM trinity and the PM Jan Dhan Yojana, among others.

JAM trinity refers to the government’s initiative to link people’s Jan Dhan accounts, mobile numbers and Aadhaar cards.

He credited demonetisation and GST for widening the tax base in the country. “Abhi thoda parivartan aaya hai, kaafi parivartan aana abhi bhi baki hai (a little bit of change has come now and more changes are yet to come),” he said.

Naidu said this while speaking about the work done under the ease of doing business initiative, followed by a mention of the Prime Minister. “The PM said earlier it used to be red tape; now let us have red carpet. That’s the talk of town everywhere now,” he said. The Vice President also said that the remarks should not be seen as him giving good marks to the Modi-led government.