Cong frowns on public remarks by party leaders on LS poll rout

Congress today disapproved of its leaders making public statements about its Lok Sabha poll debacle saying that the party does not encourage "declaring from squares, the things we discuss in private".
"What we say inside (party forum), we do not say from a square. What we have to say from the square is not what is to be spoken inside," Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said here.
The comments are significant in the context of recent remarks by senior Congress leaders like Digvijay Singh and Janardan Dwivedi and shows that AICC is wary about the public remarks concerning its worst-ever Lok Sabha poll performance.

While Dwivedi had said that leaders above the age of 65 or 70 years should not take up active posts in the party, Singh had stated it would have helped Congress more in the Lok Sabha elections had he spoken more.
Another general secretary of the party, Madhusudan Mistry, has said it was "not a good thing" for Congress leaders to issue statements to media on such matters when the Congress chief and vice president were "easily accessible" to them.
Downplaying a question regarding the remarks by these three general secretaries, Sharma said their statements cannot be connected to what the Congress has done in the Opposition during the first 100 days of the Modi government in power.

"As far as the statements are concerned, the first thing is that it is their private opinion. It is better that things are discussed within the party keeping in mind the discipline of the organisation," Sharma said.
He, meanwhile, disagreed with the view that the perceived silence of Rahul Gandhi had cost the party in the polls and Modi had attracted youths which the Congress vice president could not.
"Modi sold false dreams which cannot be realised. He promised all things to all people. Rahul Gandhi did not do that. He did not give false assurances and refused to be a dream merchant. Rahul is sincere and hence he did not do all that," Sharma said.