Indian PM to step down after May elections
Manmohan Singh alludes to Rahul Gandhi taking over the Congress party following this year’s general elections.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will step down after this year’s general elections.
In only his third news conference in a decade, Singh said that Rahul Gandhi, the 43-year-old heir to India’s Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, has the best credentials to become the next head of Congress and prime minister if his party stays in power after the polls in May.
“I have ruled myself out as a prime ministerial candidate,” Singh said.
“Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials … I do hope the party will take the right decision at the appropriate time.”
Friday’s news conference comes at a time when the Congress Party’s stock is low, battered by corruption scandals, internal feuding, and an inability to deal with a stumbling economy and deep-rooted problems with poverty, infrastructure and education.
The Congress party is set to meet on 17 January and it is expected an announcement of a Prime Ministerial candidate would be made then.
When criticised for corruption charges, scams and price increases and how his 10-year tenure as Prime Minister would be judged he said, “History will be kinder to me than contemporary media”.
Without discussing the merits of Modi, it would be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as the next prime minister
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Narendra Modi, has the momentum ahead of the May election, after trouncing Congress in recent state elections.
The vote was seen as a gauge of voter sentiment in this secular democracy of 1.2 billion.
Singh said that it would be disastrous if Modi became prime minister. Modi, chief minister of western Gujarat state for the past 11 years, is credited with turning his western state into an industrial haven.
But critics question whether the Hindu nationalist chief can be a truly secular leader over India’s many cultures.
Modi has been accused of doing little to stop anti-Muslim riots in the state in 2002, which left more than 1,000 dead.
“Without discussing the merits of Modi, it would be disastrous for the country to have Narendra Modi as the next prime minister,” Singh said.
Asked about BJP claims that he was a “weak” prime minister, Singh responded: “If by a strong prime minister they mean you preside over the massacre of innocent citizens on the streets of Ahmadabad, if that is the measure of strength, I do not believe that is the sort of strength this country needs, least of all from its prime minister.”
Ahmadabad is the commercial centre of Gujarat.
Modi has denied any role in the violence and he says he has no responsibility for the killings. Last month, he said he was shaken to the core by the violence and his government responded to it swiftly and decisively.
Singh, a technocrat, was chosen to fill the prime minister’s seat in 2004 by Sonia Gandhi, the widow of assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
But he has been widely seen as a regent, keeping the seat warm until Rahul Gandhi was ready to take what some see as his birthright.