Praniti Shinde calls Fadnavis and Modi ineffective leaders in rapid-fire round

Congress MP Praniti Shinde has described Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ineffective leaders. She was asked in a rapid-fire round of an interview which adjective she would give each leader.

When Fadnavis's leadership was mentioned, Shinde made a questioning expression and said he was ineffective as a leader. She said Prime Minister Modi's leadership was also ineffective.

Her answers on other leaders were as follows. She described Sonia Gandhi's leadership as firm, Rahul Gandhi's as farsighted, Priyanka Gandhi's as blunt, and Sushilkumar Shinde's as calm and cheerful. She called her own leadership grassroots leadership.

In the same programme, interviewer Sarita Kaushik asked Shinde whether she was part of "Team Rahul" in the Congress. She noted that Shinde had been at the protest in Delhi, had walked with Rahul Gandhi in the Bharat Jodo Yatra and had been taking part in protests consistently of late. There was talk of a separate group called Team Rahul in the Congress party, and the question was whether she was part of it.

Shinde replied that she considers herself a Congress worker and a believer in the Constitution and democracy. "I will do whatever it takes for that. I came into politics after taking an oath on this country's Constitution. Even if I had not been born into the Shinde family, I would have been a staunch Congress person. I hold secular views and believe in equal respect for all religions. I love the tricolour and the country immensely," she said.

She said she would never let the blight of division along caste and religion spread among the people who vote for her. "I will fight against it, and I am ready even if blood has to be shed for it," Shinde said.

She also spoke about the MPSC protest. She said it was a students' protest, not that of any one individual and certainly not of the rulers; it was a student movement. She said the protest was against whatever corruption was taking place in the MPSC examinations in Maharashtra. "All of us have sweated and bled for our constituencies, built them with hard work, and formed bonds with the people," she also said.

Saying the MPSC protest should be taken further, Shinde said the Chief Minister had still not said anything concrete. "I request the students to keep the protest going and not fall for their assurances. We stand shoulder to shoulder with the students, one hundred per cent," she said.

She said that when she went to the protest site, there were many people from Solapur there. She said the students' disappointment and their struggle were evident. "I do not think Rohit Pawar was giving this protest a political turn. It was a protest by the young, for the young," Praniti Shinde said.