Expelled Congress veterans stress on democratic values

LUCKNOW: A group of nine expelled veteran Congress leaders in Uttar Pradesh has asked party chief Sonia Gandhi to rise above “enchantment of the family” and run the party with “restoration of freedom expression, constitutional and democratic values” or else risk sullying “the glory of your great ancestors” and making “the party history”.

Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee’s (UPCC) disciplinary committee expelled 10 senior leaders after they held a separate event to celebrate late former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary in Lucknow on November 14 last year. “All of us are veteran leaders--former ministers, MPs [members of Parliament], MLAs [members of legislative assembly], and top office-bearers... We were AICC [All India Congress Committee] members and could have been removed only by AICC, not UPCC,” said former minister Satyadev Tripathi, one of the signatories of the letter, on Monday. The state unit revoked the expulsion of one of the 10, former minister Ram Krishna Dwivedi, days before his death in April.

In their letter to Sonia Gandhi on September 2, the group said Congress and the nation were built under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, upholding democratic values and ideals. “And you yourself adopted those values. None can deny the strength the Congress has gained under your leadership. But this is ironical that a sense of confusion and non-communication prevails among the Congress workers in view of the manner the party is running or being run.”

The letter cited many defeats that the party has faced and added Congress workers have never been so hopeless and disappointed as they are now.

“This is an issue of concern for the Congress for sure…..Those who are not even the primary members of the Congress have been working at the party’s headquarters [in states] on a financial package [salaries]. And such people now are reviewing the loyalties of committed and dedicated [leaders] who fought for the Congress from 1977-1980 and have occupied important positions in the party representing it in the Lok Sabha and the state assembly,” the letter said. “And It was under the pressure of such leaders that 10 leaders were expelled overnight from the Congress in an undemocratic, unconstitutional, and unjust manner.” The other signatories of the letter include former MP Santosh Singh.

All of us are veteran leaders-former ministers, MPs, MLAs, and top office-bearers... We were AICC members and could have been removed only by AICC, not UPCC SATYADEV TRIPATHI, former minister