Rahul Gandhi joins chorus against ordinance to save convicted lawmakers

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi today joined the chorus against the ordinance passed by the union cabinet to shield convicted lawmakers from disqualification, calling it "a complete nonsense" that "should be torn up and thrown away."

The statement issued by the Congress's prime ministerial candidate comes after growing unease among junior Congress leaders such as union minister Milind Deora and party leader Anil Shastri, who have already gone public with their reservations on the ordinance.

The public statement, although may be an embarrassment to the Congress-led central government, which has been defending the ordinance until now, may make it easy for a retracting of a wrong step.

"It's complete nonsense. It should be torn up and thrown away," Rahul Gandhi who gate crashed into Ajay Maken's press conference at the Press Club in New Delhi on Friday.

The government's argument is that it needed to do this for political consideration does not hold water, he said.

The argument given in my organisation (Congress), he said, is "we need to do this because of political considerations. Everybody is doing this. The Congress does this, the BJP does this, the Samajwadi Party, the JD (U) does this."

"We cannot continue making these small compromises. Because if we make these small compromises, then we compromise everywhere."

"It's time to stop this. We cannot continue to make compromises," he said, adding, "I personally feel that what the government is doing is wrong."

Earlier on Thursday, President Pranab Mukherjee had sought clarification on the ordinance passed by the cabinet and signed by him into law after some BJP members urged him to return the ordinance.

The government is in a tight spot over trying to overturn a Supreme Court judgment and Rahul Gandhi's outbursts could help the party get out of a difficult situation.