Jairam Ramesh ticked off by Congress for AAP praise

New Delhi, Jan 9: Union Minister

on Thursday found himself in another controversy with

ticking him off over his lavish praise for

.

In a terse reaction to queries on Ramesh's views, party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said such remarks can only come from a person who is not a political worker and has got prominence in the party without undergoing the 'rigour', but added that he was not reffering to any particular individual.

"It may be the opinion of some persons. They may be over enthusiastic. But if you see minutely, only those persons have illusions, who themselves were not political workers, who did not suffer that pain. They do not know what pain one undergoes in forming a political party and working a political activist.

"How much struggle one has to undergo before he gets an identity. Those whose identities are established all of a sudden can say anything because they have not felt that pain, not undergone that rigour," he told reporters here when asked about Ramesh's remarks on AAP yesterday. "AAP is like 'Dashavatar'.

In different states it can have different avatars," Ramesh, who is a key Congress strategist, had said yesterday advising the political class "Don't make fun of them. Making fun of them would be proved wrong." Dwivedi, however, felt that it is "not wise" to come to any final conclusion about Arvind Kejriwal's party which had won only one state on corruption issue and was yet to deliver on its promises.

The Kejriwal government is dependent upon Congress support from outside. The AAP has announced that it will contest some 250 to 300 Lok Sabha seats and assembly elections in Congress-ruled Haryana. It has also announced its plans to put up party candidate against Rahul Gandhi.

There is also a view in the party that Congress had hastily announced its backing to AAP and it would have been better had it sat in the Opposition leaving the challenge of forming the government to AAP and BJP. "We are passing through such a time. It is not wise to give a conclusion on anything concerning AAP. Right now they are a group of few people.

They have raised an issue and the party was formed and it got support and they formed government in a state. The issue was corruption. This is an issue, which is like accepting that everyone should follow the right path, should not tell a lie, should not steal.

"Who can disagree with that?...People felt that that while everybody says this, nobody does it. They have raised a question on it and in response, they have got the support. It is another thing to get support by raising an issue, by raking up sentiment...but some system is needed even to run an arrangement," Dwivedi said.

Maintaining that it requires both ideology and organisation to run a system, Dwivedi said while he does not doubt the intentions of those joining AAP, he feels that all that those who are talking of big sacrifice, social work and raising voice against all wrong things are now coming towards the politics of power.

"Who knows it may happen that the number of people who founded AAP becomes less than those who are joining the party for loaves of power. What will be that party's future then?" That is why it will be hasty to say anything about them," Dwivedi said. To a question about Left leaders as also some Congress leaders praising AAP, he said there is a subtle difference between the two. "Let the Marxist parties take care of what they say.

Perhaps the situation of chaos and anarchy suits them. They get a chance to do their politics in such a situation...this is a historic fact most of us know and accept. "As far as Congress is concerned, every single worker and leader is unhappy that such a situation arose. He feels hurt. He is also angry," the Congress general secretary said.

There would have been no Aam Aadmi Party and the Congress would not have faced such a difficult situation, if the bill was passed two years back. While caveating his response by saying that he will not comment on an individual, Dwivedi chose to flag that the Lokpal bill was ready for long time and there were certain reasons for delay in its passage.

"There were many obstacles for the delay that happened. There were tasks like evolving a consensus by getting all parties on board, to prepare the framework for their support. I think keeping in mind the difficulties the government faced on it, people should be content that the bill was passed with the support of all parties. "It was passed well so much so that even Anna Hazare and his team do not find any fault in it. So saying all this is futile. Those who are commenting on it now should tell how much effort they have taken for it earlier," Dwivedi said.

Ramesh is not been new to controversies. In November last year, the Union Minister suggested that Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the Muslim community for his ISI remark following the recent riots in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.

The Congress was quick to distance itself from the remarks with party spokesperson Meem Afzal saying they are his personal comments and not the party view. Ramesh later clarified that his comments were "twisted". The same month he triggered another controversy with his remarks that BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi wants "politics of the gutter".

In 2012, his comments that the country needs more toilets than temples has stirred a political row. Even then the Congress appeared to disapprove of his remarks saying the party respects "the sanctity of every religious place". In 2011, Ramesh had sparked off a controversy with his comments regarding the quality of research and faculty at the IITs.

PTI