Retirement age for politicians: AICC rejects Janardan Dwivedi’s suggestion

NEW DELHI: The Congress high command on Friday rejected AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi’s suggestions that top leaders above 70 should withdraw from active politics and posts. The AICC dismissed it “as his personal view” and said it was not the official line of thinking in the Congress leadership.

“What Dwivediji has said is his personal view which he is entitled to hold. But it is not the Congress party’s view”, said party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi. There are indications that party president Sonia Gandhi conveyed her disproval of his public statement when Dwivedi met her on Thursday evening.

This is the latest in a series of rebuff from Congress high command to Dwivedi’s loaded political statements during the past few months. Right ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Dwivedi had called for changing the reservation policy only to provoke Sonia Gandhi to issue a strong rejoinder the very next day. During the election campaign, Dwivedi againt hinted at Priyanka Gandhi taking an active role in the Congress which soon evoked denial from the leadership.

A fortnight back, when Congress rebel from Punjab said Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi must go around and listen to the views of the party supporters after the polls, Dwivedi virtually supported him by saying “the leadership must also be seen listening”. Within days, Brar was suspended from the party.

These serial rejections by the high command of public statements of Dwivedi who has been projecting himself as the most authentic broadcaster of the party thinking has created the impression in the party that he is out of favour with the leadership. What makes the serial rejections by the leadership all the more glaring is the fact that he has been often acting as the ‘correcting force’ whenever he thought the public statements of senior leaders were not in tune with his own thinking.