New CWC to be mix of youth, experience

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is expected to opt for a mix of youth and experience in the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, which will be reconstituted soon.

For the past few days, Gandhi has been giving the final touches to the CWC line-up along with party general secretary in charge of the organisation, Ashok Gehlot, and the list could be announced anytime now, a Congress leader familiar with the developments said.

On Wednesday, the Congress president also held a detailed discussion on the subject with his mother and the party’s former president Sonia Gandhi.

The leader cited above said on condition of anonymity that some of the party general secretaries including Digvijaya Singh, Janardan Dwivedi and Sushil Kumar Shinde, who were dropped in the piecemeal reshuffle over the past several months are likely to be accommodated in the CWC.

Apart from Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gehlot, and senior leaders Motilal Vora, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and Mukul Wasnik, the panel will also include newly inducted general secretaries, including Mallikarjun Kharge, Oommen Chandy, Avinash Pande, KC Venugopal and Dipak Babaria and leaders in charge of different states such as Asha Kumari, RPN Singh, Shaktisinh Gohil , PL Punia, Jitendra Singh, Gaurav Gogoi and Rajeev Satav.

As per the Congress Constitution, 12 of the 25 CWC members have to be elected by delegates to the All India Congress Committee (AICC), the party’s central assembly, and the rest are appointed by the party chief. The committee also has permanent and special invitees without any restriction on the number.

The previous CWC was dissolved just before the party’s 84th plenary session at Delhi in March this year and converted into a steering committee to function till the reconstitution of the panel.

The term of the steering committee expires in six months. “There is no constitutional crisis. The Congress president has time till September to reconstitute the new CWC,” said another party functionary, also on condition of anonymity.

At the plenary that ratified the election of 48-year-old Gandhi election as the Congress president, the 2,000-odd AICC delegates unanimously authorised him to reconstitute the CWC.

On December 16 last year, Rahul took over the reins of the grand old party from Sonia Gandhi, who remained at the helm continuously for more than 19 years since 1998.

In the history of the 132-yearold Congress party, elections to the CWC have been held only about a dozen times. For the past two decades now, the CWC has not witnessed any election.

The last time such polls were held was during the Kolkata plenary in 1997 with Sitaram Kesri as the party president. Before that, elections were held during P.V. Narasimha Rao’s tenure at the Tirupati session in 1992 after a gap of about two decades.

Sonia Gandhi once listed the difficulties she faced in constituting the CWC. “Nominating CWC is not an easy task. Somebody will complain that he has been left out and why the other was taken. Somewhere someone will be left out.”

Political observers said that although the exercise has been delayed, Rahul Gandhi has already indicated with the recent appointments at the national level that he will take along both the old guard and GenNext of the party.

“He will also have to strike a regional balance in his new team. The dDemographic scenario cannot be ignored and the proportion (between old and young) has to be maintained and that is the right way to go about it,” said Delhi-based political analyst N Bhaskara Rao.

NEW DELHI:

SIGNIFICANCE

The context is important. In the first three years of this government’s term, there was a willingness to not only let contradictions with China emerge sharply but an appetite to confront it directly. But over the past six months, India and China have decided to lower the temperature. In Delhi, following the informal summit in Wuhan in April, there is actually an attempt to underplay the differences and contradictions and convince Beijing as well as India’s own strategic community that the focus should be on the cooperative rather than the competitive elements of the relationship.

It is in this context that Swaraj held her meeting and formulated her threefold doctrine. The

DEBATE

Those who advocate the current approach believe it is important to understand the gaps in capabilities and resources between India and China; the limits of a confrontational and ‘muscular’ approach that antagonises neighbouring elite and only opens up space for China further; to not see this as a ‘zero-sum game’. Instead, it is better to focus on India’s strategic redlines and ensure they are not compromised.

Those who are uncomfortable with this approach believe that India may actually be los- focus on closely monitoring Chinese activities suggests that Delhi will remain alert and not let its guard down.

The focus on pursuing its own projects and delivering on commitments reflects a realisation that India has natural synergies and advantages that it has not leveraged enough. It has allowed a perception to grow that it is weak in delivery, and this has to be corrected. The focus on educating and advising the neighbours on possible ‘debt traps’ comes from a view that it is only through diplomacy and the art of persuasion and working closely with governments, civil society and media that an alternative narrative can be constructed.

ing strategic space to China in a critical neighbourhood; that it may not pose a strategic threat just yet but the important thing to look out for is capabilities and not current intentions. And if Beijing’s intentions become less than benign in the future, India’s options will get squeezed. Critics also believe that this approach will demoralise friends in the neighbouring capitals, show there is no cost to deepening ties with China, and weaken Indian standing and leverage further.

But for the moment, the Indian approach is clear -- remain alert but practice restraint.