Bengaluru: Ending his 46 long years of association with the Congress, party veteran S.M. Krishna on Sunday said that the party is in a “state of confusion” whether it needs mass leaders or managers, but for now, it seems it is content with "managers".
"With pain and anguish, I have decided to quit Congress," he said, but declined to spell out his next step, saying he still had to think about it.
"The Congress suddenly discovered that I was past my age," said the 84-year-old. "Unfortunately, it is somebody else who makes up the mind. It is somebody else who decides. Hence, I felt for some time now that Congress does not need me."
"The Congress today depends more on managers. They do not want time-tested leaders or time-tested workers like me. Hence I have taken the decision, however painful it has been, because today I am going away from a house which I was familiar with," he said.
On his possible retirement from politics, he retorted saying that politicians and soldiers never retire, but only fade away.
He made no secret of his unhappiness over the way he was made to step down as the external affairs minister in 2012 just days before a major cabinet revamp, saying he only wanted a 'graceful' exit. “I strongly feel that there is a way of getting rid of a political leader. The Congress should learn the art of being graceful. They could have told me that we are thinking of some drastic step,” he said.
The press conference, which was scheduled to start at 11.30 am, was delayed by nearly an hour as sources said Mr Krishna’s wife Prema was inconsolable. Speculation also did the rounds that the party high command was trying to intervene, but sources confirmed that none of the party top leaders called.
He said Congress president Sonia Gandhi had given him “special respect”, but took veiled digs at the central leadership. On the respect shown by Mr Rahul Gandhi, he shot back, “I will not speak about vice-president. I will speak about the president.”
He dismissed a question if he was an aspirant for the post of the country's Vice-President and whether he would meet BJP leaders, saying, “Do you think I have gone crazy?”
