Rahul Gandhi Not PM Material, Lacks Maturity And Humility: Senior North-East Congress Leader, Quits Party

Veteran Congress leader and four-time Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Donwa Dethwelson Lapang, has quit the party he has been associated with for more than 45 years while blaming Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his decision.

Lapang, 84, considered to be the party’s patriarch in the hill state, said Rahul Gandhi lacked leadership qualities and was sidelining senior leaders who had contributed to the party’s growth.

Ín an interview to Meghalaya’s leading daily, The Shillong Times, Lapang is quoted as having said that “qualities of diplomacy, strategy, maturity and humility” required in a leader are found sorely lacking in Rahul Gandhi. Comparing Rahul with Indira, Rajiv, Narasimha Rao and Manmohan (who Lapang had worked with), the veteran leader said, “he (Rahul) does not have the heart to get people together and bind them with the thread of affection.”

Lapang said that his unceremonious removal from state party leadership before assembly polls had hurt him. He said he had pleaded with Rahul to allow him to continue till the polls were over, but the Congress chief had turned him down on the ground that young leaders have to be given prominence. Lapang said Rahul’s policy of “pushing out senior and elder leaders” is a “bad idea”.

Rahul, he added, lacked the leadership qualities possessed by Nehru and Indira Gandhi and “is not PM material”. Lapang said he decided to quit the party after seeing how “very senior leaders were being sidelined”. “Old and white-haired people have become a liability for the AICC,” he added.

Lapang’s sudden resignation has thrown politics in a tizzy in Meghalaya and sparked speculation that the veteran could join the National People’s Party that is governing Meghalaya in alliance with the BJP and some other parties.