In an interview with ABP News, Pankaj Shankar, a close aide of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has blamed the first family of the Congress party for ruining the party. He said that Sonia Gandhi has ruined Congress because of her ‘putra moh’ (love for her son) and Rahul Gandhi even after so many years in politics is still in his ‘internship’ phase.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxGpvrXNLmU]
Pankaj Shankar said that over the years, numerous experiments have been conducted since Rahul Gandhi entered politics and after Youth Congress, NSUI and Amethi, the only thing that is left experimenting with is the Congress party. He said that if these experiments continue, even Congress will be destroyed.
The filmmaker and cartoonist is currently working with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. In a tweet on the 31st of October, Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary, he slammed Rahul Gandhi for failing to produce any movie on Indira Gandhi while he claimed that Narendra Modi has already succeeded in making several about him. He said that Rahul Gandhi had failed to remind the people of this country about Indira Gandhi’s legacy. He reiterated the same points during the interview.
Who stopped @RahulGandhi to get a feature film made on #IndiraGandhi. Any effort to remind the younger generation of her contributions… No #Modi ji has been in #Delhi for less than 6 years. Got half a dozen films made on himself. #IndiraGandhi35thDeathAnniversary pic.twitter.com/xHvoE2U7Ho
— Pankaj Shankar पंकज शंकर (@pankaj_shankar) October 31, 2019
Pankaj Shankar also slammed Rahul Gandhi for the whole resignation drama that ensued when he refused to continue as the President of the Congress party. He said that the uncertainty that now looms over the future of the Congress party’s post of president affects the ordinary party worker.
“There was a time when there used to be one Murthi of Bajrang Bali in every village and one Congress worker. Now we have a situation where it’s difficult to find even a Congress flag. Whose fault is it? It’s not the worker’s fault. It is the leadership that has slowly but surely ruined the party. And who headed the leadership? It was in his (Rahul Gandhi’s) hands,” said Pankaj Shankar on the decline of Congress party. “He has made himself a coterie, it has its own thinking and he wants to do whatever they say. He doesn’t listen to anyone else,” he added. He also said that soon judgment in the Ram Janambhoomi case will be delivered and they have ‘no line to speak on the matter’.
Most intriguingly, Pankaj Shankar also vouched for Priyanka Gandhi to become the next president of the party. He claimed that she had introduced Rahul Gandhi to the world of politics leading him by his fingers. He also claimed that there was significant fear among the opposition regarding Priyanka Gandhi. Pankaj Shankar said that the Opposition parties were scared of her entry into politics. “What are the reasons that she is being stopped?” he asked. He continued, “Will Rahul Gandhi decide the fate of the party? The workers who toil for the party, do they not have any stake in the matter?”
Read: Rahul Gandhi to become ‘ideologue’ and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for PM: Congress ‘masterplan’ for 2024?
Considering the fact that Priyanka Gandhi’s political strength begins and ends with her facial similarities to Indira Gandhi, her grandmother, and that her leadership in Uttar Pradesh during the General Election 2019 could not help the party in any manner whatsoever, Pankaj Sharma’s comments do reek of political partisanship.
Most damningly, Pankaj Shankar insinuated that Rahul Gandhi was preventing Priyanka Gandhi from becoming the president of the party. In response to a question of whether Rahul Gandhi was responsible for Priyanka Gandhi not becoming the president of the party, he asked, “Who else do you think is stopping her?” Upon further questioning, he said, “Who is stopping whom, that is an internal matter but the fact is she is where she is. And she is here at this point where the Congress party’s situation is deteriorating day by day. This is the truth. So who is stopping her? The worker isn’t that powerful, so who is stopping her?”
“How long will Rahul Gandhi continue with his experiments? You have given him every opportunity. All these years, opportunities are all that he has received,” Pankaj Shankar continued with his attack on the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. He also revealed that a web series is on the works on how the current leadership of the Congress party under Rahul Gandhi has misused the goodwill that the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has enjoyed over the years. The script has ‘almost’ been finalized and shooting is expected to begin within the next ten days.
Read: Watch: Congress makes kids abuse Narendra Modi in presence of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra
Pankaj Shankar claimed that the blame for all of this lies at the feet of Sonia Gandhi. He said that she was the one who made the final call. And the final call was always ‘give Rahul more opportunities’. He also said that the leadership of the Congress party has failed to communicate effectively with the country at large.
The close aide of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty also said his statements were not motivated by any personal factors. He reiterated that he still believes that the ‘rightwing’ is a great threat to the country. Pankaj Shankar also asserted that people in Rahul Gandhi’s ‘coterie’ are not ‘grounded’ and have no connection with ground realities. “Hawa-Hawai baatein kartey hain. This country runs through the villages. It is necessary to understand the sentiments of the villages and they have not yet understood any of it,” he said.
