Congress’s revival key for democracy: Sonia
NEW DELHI: Pitching the revival of the Indian National Congress as “essential for democracy and the society”, party president Sonia Gandhi told party MPs at the meeting of the Congress parliamentary party on Tuesday that she is “determined to do whatever is needed” to ensure “unity at all levels”.
Gandhi has already met G23 leaders such as Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma and Manish Tewari separately on the party’s revival, demanded resignation of all five state unit chiefs that recently went to the polls and unleashed a spate of organizational changes at the state level. On Tuesday, she informed the MPs about her efforts and told them she has received many “pertinent” suggestions. The unity at all levels indicates accommodating many G23 leaders at the decision-making process and also curbing factionalism at the ground level, insiders said.
“The road ahead is more challenging than ever before. Our dedication and determination, our spirit of resilience is under severe test. Unity at all levels of our vast organisation is of paramount importance and speaking for myself, I am determined to do whatever is needed to ensure it. Our revival is not just a matter of importance to us alone — it is, in fact, essential for our democracy itself and indeed for our society as well,” she said at the parliamentary party meeting.
The Congress president described the party’s performance in the assembly elections of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur as “shocking and painful”. “The CWC (Congress Working Committee) has met once to review our performance. I have met with other colleagues too. I have received many suggestions on how to strengthen our organization. Many are pertinent and I am working on them,” she said.
Gandhi also indicated she was looking forward to the upcoming chintan shivir (brainstorming workshop), likely to be held in Rajasthan in the last week of April. Emphasizing that a workshop is “very necessary”, Gandhi said, “The views of a larger number of colleagues and party representatives will be heard” in the camp and “they will contribute to put forward a clear road map on the urgent steps to be taken by our party on how best to meet the challenges we are confronted with.”
The Congress does not look beyond the Gandhi family irrespective of whether its members have the ability or not, Union minister and BJP leader Anurag Thakur said.
“The question that keeps cropping up within the Congress is will its leadership continue to be limited to one family whether its members have ability or not,” Thakur told reporters here, adding the Congress cannot put its house in order unless it solves this issue.