Congress should become strong; a strong opposition essential for democracy: Nitin Gadkari

Pune: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways and senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari has said that it is important for democracy that the Congress remain strong and he honestly wished that the Congress becomes strong at the national level.

Speaking at a journalism awards ceremony in Pune on Saturday, the Union minister sounded least partisan on the issues with respect for the opposition; he said that the phenomenon of regional parties becoming stronger and taking the place of the Congress did not augur well for Indian democracy.

"Democracy runs on two wheels — the ruling dispensation and the Opposition. A strong Opposition is a need for democracy. Hence it is my honest wish that the Congress party should become stronger. Also, with the Congress weakened, its place is being taken by regional parties which is not good for democracy," the Indian Express quoted him a saying.

"Those who follow Congress ideology should remain in the party and have faith in its ideals. In 1978-80, I had joined the BJP and had come to Pune to participate in the party convention. When I got off at the railway station, carrying the publicity material on my shoulders, I bumped into Shrikant Jichkar who suggested to me that I should enter a 'good party' which will give me a future. I told him that I will jump into a well and end my life but won't abandon my ideology. At that time, BJP had only two MPs in Lok Sabha. But times changed with the efforts of party workers, and we got a Prime Minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee. So one should not abandon one's ideology in moments of despair," he said.

Speaking with a personal note, Gadkari said that he was not in the race for prime minister. "I am a national politician and am not interested in coming to Maharashtra [State politics] at this stage. Once upon a time, I wasn't particularly interested in going to the Centre, but am happy there now. I am a conviction-oriented politician and not a particularly ambitious one," Mr. Gadkari said during a Q&A session conducted by a prominent vernacular newspaper, as part of the event.

Gadtkari also recalled the regard Nehru had for the Opposition with the example of the electoral defeat of Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the Lok Sabha election [in 1957 in Mathura]; but Vajpayee still earned Nehru's respect. He added, "those in the Congress today must stick to their convictions and remain in the Congress."

He recalled how he was once discouraged in the early 1980s from continuing with the BJP by late Congressman from Nagpur, Dr. Shrikant Jichkar, at a time when the saffron party's fortunes were at an all-time low. But he said he stuck to his convictions with perseverence; later his party's fortunes soared under AB Vajpayee and eventually the party became what it is today.

"Every party will get its day. The point is to keep working on," he said.