Some top Congress leaders are of the view that the NAC should be revived with Gandhi at its helm in order to ensure better coordination between the party and the UPA Government. But the other section of the party feels that since Gandhi regularly interacts with Singh, there is no need to institutionalise the coordination mechanism.Sources in the AICC said that the issue was now being discussed within the party.
Chief Minister of Congress-ruled Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot was the first to raise the issue in public. He told an employment rally at Rajsamand in southern Rajasthan last week that the NAC should be reconstituted with Gandhi herself being its chairperson. The rally was organised under the UPA-I’s flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee programme.
“The NAC was indeed a very successful interface between the Government and civil society. It had provided key policy inputs for the first UPA Government,” said a senior AICC General Secretary, who shares Gehlot’s views.
The NAC had been first constituted on June 4, 2004, ostensibly to give legitimacy to the advisory role of Gandhi, who had just a month back declined to be the PM despite leading the Congress to victory. Gandhi as the NAC chairperson had enjoyed cabinet status. But, on March 23, 2006, she resigned from the post.