Rahul Gandhi has all qualities to make an excellent PM: Tharoor
New Delhi, Dec 30: Rahul Gandhi has all the right qualities to make an "excellent" prime minister, senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said Sunday, even as he emphasised that the issue of PM candidate is likely to be decided after the 2019 polls "collectively" by the party and its allies.
Tharoor also said the recent assembly elections have made it clear that the Congress remains the only alternative political party with a pan-India presence, and therefore, would be the "natural fulcrum" for any national alliance.
"Rahul Gandhi is our leader, which means that if Congress gets a majority, he will be PM. If Congress is in a coalition government, obviously wider discussions will be held with other coalition partners to arrive at a consensus candidate," he told PTI in an interview.
Tharoor said that any decision on the PM candidate put forward by the Congress and its allies will take place through established processes and conventions which will have to be representative of the interests of the larger coalition.
It will be a "collective decision" and, as is usually the case, this is only likely to be discussed after the election results, he said.
"At a personal level, having had several interactions and discussions in close quarters with the Congress president, to my mind it is evidently clear that Rahul ji has all the right qualities to make an excellent prime minister for the country," Tharoor said when asked about Gandhi seemingly emerging as the opposition's PM face despite them saying that a decision on it will be taken after polls.
He said Gandhi's inclusive style of leadership, a willingness to reach across the political divide, the empathy extended towards aggrieved sections of the society, a commitment to the pluralist fabric of the country, paired with a distinctive charisma, humility and remarkable awareness, all suggest that he would be able to "fittingly live up to the expectations of the top job".
"And at some level, one could argue that recent statements by non-Congress leaders reflect a growing confidence that Rahul is indeed the right man for the job," the 62-year-old leader said.
His remarks assume significance as they come after DMK president M K Stalin had vowed to make Gandhi the country's next prime minister and lauded him for having the ability to defeat the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.
Leader of National Conference, Farooq Abdullah, had also recently hailed Gandhi, saying he is no longer a "Pappu" after proving his mettle as a leader by winning elections in three Hindi heartland states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
However, several prospective allies such as the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress have not endorsed Stalin's views and said that a decision on the PM candidate will be taken after the polls.
On whether the dynamics of a possible grand alliance has changed with the Congress' win in the Hindi heartland states, Tharoor said he believes that it is still too early to tell, though the signs from the poll results certainly augur well for the fortunes of the Congress.
"The voters have signalled that they are tired of being taken for a ride by the BJP and are open to climbing on the Congress bandwagon instead," the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.
In the next few months, the Congress will demonstrate anew that it has the vision and the capacity to restore, across the country, the voters' faith that the party can deliver the right results for them, the former Union minister asserted.
He also said the Congress is likely to have pre and post-poll alliances, including an existing set of arrangement with partners that the Congress has in some states.
The question of whether or not there will officially be a grand alliance among the Opposition parties remains to be seen, he said.
To a question on the passage of the triple talaq bill in Lok Sabha last week, Tharoor said the Congress was strongly opposed to the version of the bill that was passed by the government because it was a fundamentally flawed legislation.
"Triple talaq has already been rendered illegal by the Supreme Court: why was this law needed? It seems to have been designed with the intent to create a class-specific legislation on the basis of religion and therefore is a violation of Article 15 and 16 of our Constitution, he alleged.
The senior Congress leader claimed that the bill doesn't protect Muslim women, but instead penalises Muslim men.
"The legislation is manifestly arbitrary with no safeguards against misuse. All of this was made clear in Parliament and supplemented with a demand that the legislation be sent to a Parliamentary Committee for a more comprehensive review, but to no avail," he said.
"After passing what could only be viewed as politically motivated legislation, it would be ironic for the BJP to suggest that it us and not they who indulge in minority appeasement," Tharoor said.
Asked about Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah's remarks on mob violence in India, Tharoor said the reactions and threats, and demonstrations against his public appearances, have been "unseemly and unwarranted".
"I have always maintained that the answer to an opinion must be another opinion. There simply can be no place for violence or a total disregard for individual liberties that have been enshrined in our Constitution such as the fundamental right of expression, in the democratic India of the 21st century," he said.
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Kerala court sentences man to life imprisonment for doc's murder in hospital
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Kollam (PTI): A teacher convicted in the sensational murder of Dr Vandana Das inside a hospital here was sentenced to life term on Saturday, and the prosecution said it will move an appeal seeking death penalty for the accused. The victim's family also batted for "maximum punishment".
Dr Das was brutally killed inside a taluk hospital in May 2023 by G Sandeep.
Kollam Additional District and Sessions judge P N Vinod sentenced Sandeep to a total of 30 years for various offences under the then Indian Penal Code (IPC) and said that after he serves that period, his life imprisonment for Das' murder will commence.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2.35 lakh on the convict.
Though the prosecution had sought death penalty for the accused during the arguments on sentence, the court was of the view that the case does not fall under the rarest-of-rare category to warrant the maximum punishment.
It was also of the view that there was a chance of the convict getting reformed as he told the court that the rest of his life would be one of repentance, the order on sentence said.
"At the same time, I agree with the stand of the prosecution to the effect that the sentence should commensurate with the gravity of the crime and the sentence should not only be reformative, but should also have a deterrent effect."
"In my view, the said objective can be achieved by directing that the term sentences that will be imposed will run consecutively and life sentence that has to be imposed will commence only after the expiration of terms sentences," the judge said.
After the verdict, special public prosecutor (SPP) Prathap G Padickal told reporters outside the court that he will recommend to the prosecution to file an appeal seeking enhancement of the life imprisonment to death penalty.
The victim's father said that the verdict has come as a relief for the family, but that he cannot authoritatively say whether his late daughter has got justice. He indicated his dissatisfaction with the punishment, saying that steps will be taken to seek its enhancement after discussions with the public prosecutor.
Dr Das' mother said that the family can only wish for the maximum punishment and it was up to the court to decide what sentence should be given. She said that the family will go in appeal, but declined to comment on whether her daughter got justice.
She tearfully said that she wants the convict to suffer the same pain that her daughter underwent "as he stabbed her 27 times".
The court on March 17 had convicted Sandeep for various offences under the IPC, including murder, destruction of evidence and wrongful restraint.
It had also held him guilty under the provisions of the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of violence and damage to property) Act 2012.
Sandeep was brought to the taluk hospital by the police for medical treatment during the small hours of May 10, 2023 and he went on a sudden attacking spree using a pair of surgical scissors kept in the room where his leg injury was being dressed.
A school teacher by profession, he had initially attacked the police officers and another person who had accompanied him to the hospital and then turned on the young Dr Das, who could not escape to safety.
She was stabbed several times and later succumbed to her injuries in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram where she was rushed following the attack.
Dr Das was a native of the Kaduthuruthy area of Kottayam district and the only child of her parents.
She was a house surgeon at Azeezia Medical College Hospital and was working at the Kottarakkara taluk hospital as part of her training.
Sandeep had called the emergency number 112, claiming that his life was in danger. When local police located him, he was standing close by his home, surrounded by local residents and his relatives, and had a wound on his leg following an alleged quarrel.
He was then taken to the hospital for dressing the wound.
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