Modi is still a challenge for Congress, says Jairam Ramesh

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday favoured that the party “directly” takes on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he remained a challenge.

“He remains a challenge. We have to take him on directly. In the GSPC scam the issue is Modi and it is a `20,000 crore ghapla (scam),” Mr Ramesh told PTI.

A delegation of Gujarat Congress leaders last month met President Pranab Mukherjee and sought a judicial probe into the alleged `19,760-crore scam in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) during Mr Modi’s tenure as the chief minister.

Mr Ramesh also said that in the last two years, since Mr Modi became the Prime Minister, there has been a “vast gap” between what was promised and what has been delivered, and what was said and done, and the Opposition needs to “exploit” it fully.

A known detractor of Mr Modi, Mr Ramesh said that while taking on the Prime Minister the Congress needs to understand that the party is fighting an ideological battle which is completely different.

Nothing moves within the BJP and the Central government without the blessings and approval of the Prime Minister, he added.

“To think that Mr Modi is different is not correct. All happenings in the HRD, rewriting of textbooks, erosion of autonomy of the IITs. These are all Mr Modi’s blessings.”

“(Subramanian) Swamy’s attacks has his blessings. Not a leaf moves within BJP and Government without Modi’s blessings and approval”, he said. Dr Swamy had recently targeted RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan.

Incidently, Ramesh was the first Congress leader who had said in 2013, a year before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections that Mr Modi poses both a “managerial as also an ideological challenge” for the party which was then ruling at the Centre.