'Rahul could've handled lawmakers' ordinance issue better'

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi could have handled the lawmakers' ordinance issue better in September last year when he had made a surprise appearance at a press meet to denounce it as "complete nonsense", senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said on Sunday.

"There are some issues which could have been handled better," Singh told Karan Thapar on the 'Devil's Advocate' programme on TV news channel CNN-IBN.

Singh was responding to general criticism of Gandhi that he lacked judgement and cited the Congress vice president's attack against the UPA government's ordinance at the press meet which was being held by party general secretary Ajay Maken.

Singh said "exactly" when repeatedly asked whether he was clearly accepting that Gandhi could have handled it much better.

"All people, young people are boisterous. Therefore, don't blame them for that... What I am trying to say is that it is good to be the way he behaves," Singh said.      

An unexpected and blunt attack by Gandhi on the ordinance to protect convicted lawmakers had caused political tremors.

Using tough language, Gandhi had made a rare and dramatic appearance before journalists at the Delhi Press Club to denounce the ordinance as "complete nonsense" and call for the document to be "torn up and thrown away".

When repeatedly asked as to why Congress was refusing to declare Gandhi as its prime ministerial candidate, Singh said, "This has never been a tradition of Congress party to designate a prime minister in-waiting."

"(It was done) only in 2009, because an incumbent prime minister was interested in a second term," he said.

Image: Congress general secretary Digvijaya Singh