PV Narasimha Rao should have been treated better: Margaret Alva

Hyderabad: Former Rajasthan Governor and Union minister Margaret Alva believes that the Congress has to change in tune with the aspirations of young people of the country and stop being a “single centre party.”

Once a major Congress politician, she says Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a terrific orator, able to sell his ideas like nobody else. He connects with large sections of people and that is why he has won and is safely ensconced in New Delhi, she said, adding: “But I don’t subscribe to all his ideas; I hate the beef ban, the sedition cases, the emergency-like situation.”

Ms Alva says she still feels sad at the way the party treated former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, in whose Cabinet she was a minister. “The party should have treated Narasimha Rao with greater dignity in his death,” she said.

The former Governor made these comments during a conversation with columnist Sriram Karri during the launch of her autobiography Courage and Commitment-An autobiography, at a city hotel in association with Prabha Khaitan Foundation India.

When asked that, having worked with Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, did she think Rahul Gandhi can revive the Congress and bring it back to power, Ms Alva said: “This is the inevitable question everywhere. I don’t think any child can be a carbon copy of his father, mother, grandfather or grandmother. Each one has to charter his course. In a democracy, if the people choose their leader, he stays. If the people reject their leader, the leader goes. Therefore it’s unfair to sit somewhere and judge.”

However, she did say that the party has to “stop being a single centre party.”  She says the time has gone when Delhi took all the decisions. “The state leadership has to be built up if the party has to revive and survive. I think unless the state leadership is given responsibility, and given the right to take decisions, you can’t blame anybody. Can Rahul Gandhi go alone and win every election all over the country? It’s humanly impossible for anyone.”