PM should quit, Rahul should apologise, says Baru

Sanjaya Baru, former press advisor to the prime minister, said Friday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should quit in the wake of the "insulting" remarks by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on the controversial ordinance sent to the president.

He also said that Rahul Gandhi must apologise to the prime minister.

Baru had tweeted that Rahul Gandhi's comments that the ordinance that seeks to protect convicted lawmakers should be "torn up and thrown away" were tantamount to insubordination of the prime minister and undermined his position and authority.

"I think he should quit," said Baru to CNN-IBN television channel.

"Having differences of opinion is different; there is nothing wrong it if a member of the party wants to criticize it. But the manner in which it was done, the language that has been used and the context in which it has happened - when the BJP went to meet the president over it yesterday and the president is holding back on the ordinance...," said Baru.

"This is not an individual personal fantasy of the prime minister. He sent the ordinance for signature to the president on behalf of the government, which is essentially a Congress government..."

"But to say this (ordinance) is nonsense, and should be torn up and thrown away...?"

"I don't think why he (prime minister) should continue, he should call off his meetings (in the US) and return... The manner in which this has been done is insulting," said Baru.

"I think he (Prime Minister Manmohan Singh) will be a man in great distress, he is a very sentimental man, very emotional man..."

"The least that Rahul Gandhi can do is to call up and apologise," he said.