Indian PM endorses Rahul Gandhi to succeed him this year,
Handover to member of famed family expected after elections due by May
NEW DELHI— Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signalled younger party leader Rahul Gandhi should replace him while saying he’ll step aside after elections due by May, ending a decade in power with Asia’s thirdbiggest economy in a slump.
“I will hand the baton over to a new prime minister,” Singh, 81, told reporters in New Delhi Friday. Gandhi has “outstanding credentials,” Singh said, adding that top opposition candidate Narendra Modi “would be disastrous for the country” and presided over a “mass massacre” of citizens in his state of Gujarat.
Singh’s successor will inherit an economy with the fastest inflation in Asia, but that is growing at the slowest pace in about a decade. Opinion polls show his ruling Congress party losing the vote.
Singh’s appointment a decade ago sparked optimism the former finance minister would build on moves he took in 1991 to open India’s economy. He ended up leading a gov- ernment seen as one of the most corrupt in the nation’s history — one struggling to contain spending and a plunge in the rupee, which has stoked the cost of everything from onions to energy.
“The scams and economic struggles of the last three years will certainly cloud his legacy,” said Brahma Chellaney, a professor at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi who worked on an economic task force led by Singh. “He’s the captain of the ship and takes blame for these issues and I think he knows that.”
Rahul Gandhi’s family has dominated Congress and Indian politics for more than six decades. Jawaharlal Nehru, Rahul’s great-grandfather and independence movement hero, became the country’s first prime minister. He was followed by his daughter, Indira Gandhi, and her son, Rajiv Gandhi, Rahul’s father. Both were assassinated, drawing comparisons with the Kennedy family.
For most of his political career, Rahul Gandhi has avoided weighing in on issues of national importance. He rarely speaks in legislative debates and has missed more than half the sittings since the present term convened in May 2009, according to records on the parliament’s website.
“I always felt that our government
“The scams and economic struggles of the last three years will certainly cloud his legacy.” BRAHMA CHELLANEY CENTRE FOR POLICY RESEARCH IN NEW DELHI
would have been strengthened if Rahul Gandhi was part of the government, but Rahul felt he had responsibility to the party, which did not permit him to join the government,” Singh said, adding that he respects his decision. “Rahul Gandhi has outstanding credentials to be nominated as the presidential candidate and I hope our party will take that decision at the appropriate time,” he said. Singh defended his record Friday, saying he oversaw the economy’s fastest-ever expansion to lift 138 million people out of poverty. He urged Indians to look beyond the current economic slump and said most charges would be dismissed against officials accused of losing as much as $53 billion in revenue in the sale of mobile phone licences and coal blocks. Singh more than doubled the guaranteed-support prices for wheat and rice in the year ended June 30 from 2005-2006 to boost the wages of In- dian farmers. He started a program to employ one adult in every poor rural household for a minimum of100 days a year, and enacted a law that will provide cheaper food to about twothirds of the country’s 1.2 billion people. India’s consumer inflation exceeded 11 per cent in November, the highest in the Group of 20 major economies, as bottlenecks of everything from food to energy stoked price increases. Singh took aim at Modi, Gujarat’s chief minister who is the leading candidate of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. Asked about criticism that he’s been a weak leader, Singh attacked Modi’s handling of the 2002 riots in Gujarat, which killed about 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. The carnage, which has left Modi barred from the U.S., followed the killing of Hindu activists in a train fire, a blaze for which Muslims were later found guilty. While human rights groups accuse Modi of failing to control subsequent riots, he denies wrongdoing and a Supreme Courtappointed panel investigating one documented incident found no evidence that he made decisions that prevented victims from receiving help.