Gandhi hesitant on becoming India’s prime minister

NEW DELHI – Sonia Gandhi has shown reluctance to become India’s prime minister, throwing the Congress party into “crisis,” party leaders said yesterday.

“We have no official information. We only know from various sources that she has indicated reluctance.Of course we are shattered to hear this,” senior party leader Salman Khurshid told AFP.Another Congress leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, spoke of a crisis over who will become prime minister.”A crisis is there.Unless it is resolved, it remains,” the second leader said.A Congress spokesman had earlier denied television reports that Gandhi, who has faced criticism because she was born in Italy, had opted out of the prime ministership.Somnath Chatterjee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, a Congress ally, said it seemed that Gandhi’s children Rahul and Priyanka were against their mother taking up the country’s top job because they feared for her safety.Chatterjee said the communists were not averse to the mantle falling on Manmohan Singh, the architect of India’s economic reforms.”We have no problem with Manmohan Singh.He is one of the most decent persons, a knowledgeable economist and I will opt for him any time over any person in the BJP,” Chatterjee said, referring to the outgoing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.Singh, a former executive of the International Monetary Fund, stripped away decades of quasi-socialist insulations from India’s protected economy and opened the door for competition when he was finance minister in a Congress government in 1991.- Nampa-AFPWe only know from various sources that she has indicated reluctance.Of course we are shattered to hear this,” senior party leader Salman Khurshid told AFP.Another Congress leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, spoke of a crisis over who will become prime minister.”A crisis is there.Unless it is resolved, it remains,” the second leader said.A Congress spokesman had earlier denied television reports that Gandhi, who has faced criticism because she was born in Italy, had opted out of the prime ministership.Somnath Chatterjee of the Communist Party of India-Marxist, a Congress ally, said it seemed that Gandhi’s children Rahul and Priyanka were against their mother taking up the country’s top job because they feared for her safety.Chatterjee said the communists were not averse to the mantle falling on Manmohan Singh, the architect of India’s economic reforms.”We have no problem with Manmohan Singh.He is one of the most decent persons, a knowledgeable economist and I will opt for him any time over any person in the BJP,” Chatterjee said, referring to the outgoing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.Singh, a former executive of the International Monetary Fund, stripped away decades of quasi-socialist insulations from India’s protected economy and opened the door for competition when he was finance minister in a Congress government in 1991.- Nampa-AFP