Rahul Gandhi calls for housecleaning in Gujarat Congress

It was a public rebuke that reminded everyone, perhaps mostly his party colleagues, how Rahul Gandhi’s comments can sometimes sting a lot. Gandhi once publicly castigated the Manmohan Singh government for issuing an ordinance to negate the Supreme Court order on disqualifying convicted MPs and MLAs, terming it as “complete nonsense” that should be “torn and thrown out”. On Saturday, on the last day of a two-day stock-taking visit to Gujarat, he took aim at the state Congress leaders “conniving with the BJP”. “Even if we have to remove 20 to 30 people, we will do it,” Gandhi said. While there may indeed be several in the Congress ranks who may be playing for the ruling party, could Gandhi be missing the bigger picture? Several party leaders agreed with what he said, while some, like former Mahila Congress state president Jenny Thummar, pointed out that what he was railing at was all but natural when a party had been out of power in the state for three decades. “We, as a party, have to motivate them, we have to sit them down and talk to them,” Thummar suggested.