No one-size-fits-all policy: Singhvi on full statehood to Delhi
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi on Thursday said there was no "one-size-fits-all" policy on the issue of full statehood to Delhi. He said this at a programme to release the Congress manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls at the party's Delhi unit office. Delhi minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Gopal Rai had asked the Congress on Wednesday to support the demand for full statehood to Delhi so that the people of the national capital could lead their lives with dignity. In a letter to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Rai had said he should support the demand for full statehood to Delhi, instead of proposing to amend the GNCTD Act, 1991. Asked about the absence of the issue of full statehood to Delhi in the Congress manifesto, although the same was promised for Puducherry, Singhvi said, "There is no one-size-fits-all policy. We have taken a very cautious approach to draft the document. There has been a Supreme Court verdict as well." Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit said necessary changes in the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act would be made to streamline the power structure. Full statehood to Delhi has been the central theme of the AAP's campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. Dikshit, in the past, had said the Congress had worked for full statehood to Delhi, but it did not succeed. Presenting the salient features of the Congress manifesto on agriculture, employment, health, minimum income and education, Singhvi attacked the Narendra Modi government for resorting to "jumlebazi" (rhetoric) on these issues in the last five years. Dikshit said the manifesto gave an idea about the works the Congress party intended to do. PTI
