Congress sidetracks Jairam Ramesh's remarks

Union Minister Jairam Ramesh's suggestion that Rahul Gandhi was focused more on the long term future of the party ignoring the immediate challenge of elections and about his probable performance in the Lok Sabha elections were downplayed by the Congress today.

But BJP latched on to the comments as an admission of defeat.

"I have not seen it very honestly. I tried to contact Jairam Ramesh but could not", was the reply of Congress spokesman Meem Afzal to a volley of questions on the issue.

He spoke in similar vein to Ramesh's remarks in a media interview that his frustration was that Rahul Gandhi was too forward looking about building the party in the long term when facing the immediate short term challenge of elections.

The response was on the same lines when the Congress spokesman was asked about Ramesh's description of Congress as a giant elephant that moves slowly while the BJP is a jackal, which can sniff, move here, move there quickly.

However, BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar saw in the remarks of Ramesh an admission of defeat in the next Lok Sabha polls.

"Ramesh has accepted defeat in 2014. Practically even before starting the battle, they have conceded defeat. Ramesh cursing that Modi will be finished will not happen. This is exasperation and frustration. Therefore, they are cursing Modi which will not impact people who have decided to change the current regime", he said.

Another BJP spokesman Capt Abhimanyu said "It is an established fact that Rahul Gandhi is taking too long to learn and Congress workers are getting impatient as he is not coming up to their expectations in providing them that leadership. The pace of his learning itself will ensure it is going to take a very long time.