Cong’s Jairam Ramesh calls Mukul ‘modern-day Judas’

SHILLONG, Feb 11: Congress on Saturday made a hard-hitting frontal attack on Mukul Sangma, calling him “modern-day Judas” for deserting the party which made him the chief minister.
Addressing newspersons here, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh termed the Meghalaya TMC as JMP (Judas Mukul Party) to vent the anger of the party leaders over the defection from Congress.
“It is the pure personal ambition of Mukul Sangma, his wife, daughter and son-in-law which led them to desert the Congress which had given Sangma respect, ambition and everything,” Ramesh said.
Stating that there was no other ground or reason for Mukul to desert the party, the Congress leader said he showed commitment towards advancement of his own interest and the advancement of his own extended family.
Ramesh recalled that Mukul would always complain to the party high command that he was not getting a position in the party when former Congress leader DD Lapang was the Chief Minister.
“A lot of us were his friends, including me and Salman Khurshid. We had pleaded to make Mukul Sangma as the chief minister. I used to have good equation with him even when he was the Chief Minister. But he decided to desert the party, being ungrateful of what the party has done for him,” the Congress leader said.
When pointed out that Mukul, along with 11 others, had quit the party as they were unhappy with Vincent Pala’s appointment as the MPCC chief, Ramesh said nobody has a monopoly of any position.
“Changes are made keeping in mind various circumstances. He (Dr Mukul) had free access to the party high command including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Even after meeting them, he betrayed the Congress party. He is a modern-day Judas,” Ramesh said.
He, however, stated that it is good that all of them have left.
According to him, today 47 out of 60 candidates in the Congress party are below the age of 45, adding that ten out of 60 are women.
“Vacancies were created by the mass migration of all these Judases. It is good that the people have left and new people have been given an opportunity. We are hopeful that we are building a foundation for a new Congress in Meghalaya,” he said.
When pointed out that the AICC is controlling things from Delhi, he said that the party high command of the Congress is fundamentally democratic. “When we look at the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a one-man high command. Even TMC’s Mamata Banerjee is the one-person high command. But our party high command is a collective entity,” the AICC leader said.
Ramesh said that leaders like Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Dr Mukul Sangma were products of the “new best-selling BJP washing machines”.
“Anybody who has some vulnerability to the Enforcement Directorate, CBI or Income Tax gets into this new BJP washing machine and they come out clean on the other side. No inquiries are being done against them. The Khasi term which can be used for these leaders is nongshet kylla (traitor),” he remarked.