After lavishing praise on Manmohan Singh, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh chose former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for wholesome praise and said the late leader was a "true nationalist".
NEW DELHI: After lavishing praise on Manmohan Singh, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh on Sunday chose former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi for wholesome praise and said the late leader was a "true nationalist".
However, he took a potshot at Gandhi's party, saying it is an "embarrassment" for the "present Congress regime" that it has not taken forward the Assam Accord of 1985, which the late prime minister had signed.
"Rajiv Gandhi signed the Assam Accord and when his party lost the elections, he accepted it and said, Congress was defeated but peace, tranquillity and the Constitution have won.
He did not behave like a politician (when signing the Accord) and he acted as a true nationalist. But its non-implementation is a cause of embarrassment for the present Congress regime," Singh said on the sidelines of an international conference on terrorism.
Lamenting the loss of political culture of consulting each other like in the yesteryears, he said at the seminar, "We cannot do anything as long as political opponents are treated as enemies. Strained political relations will create problems."
In this context, he praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying he wants to "take forward the politics of consensus".
Singh's comments come in the backdrop of warming up of ties between Congress and Samajwadi Party. He was recently invited to the dinner hosted by Manmohan Singh on the completion of four years of UPA government.
Singh also recalled an incident in Parliament in the 1970s when Indira Gandhi intervened to stop Pranab Mukherjee from using harsh words against Janata leader Charan Singh.
Noting that the trend in politics has become increasingly unhealthy, he said there is a need for more consultations.
"We can talk to Pakistan despite years of enmity but not to political opponents in the country," he said.
"If you speak against the Ghulam Nabi Azad government in Jammu and Kashmir, you are not welcome. If you speak against the Tarun Gogoi government in Assam, you are not welcome there also. This has to change," he said.
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