Generational shift ongoing process in Congress: Pilot ahead of AICC session

New Delhi: Ahead of the AICC session in Ahmedabad, Congress general secretary Sachin Pilot on Sunday said a generational shift was underway in the party with young leaders living up to the tasks entrusted to them, and asserted that accountability as well as strengthening of ideology would be the watchwords going forward.

In an interview with PTI, Pilot said the AICC session taking place in Gujarat is significant as it comes at a time when the focus is on strengthening the party in that state and restoring its past glory there.

The former Union minister also asserted that while the party may have lost some state polls after the Lok Sabha elections, it has not lost the conviction or the vigour to fight on.

Asked if the time has come for a generational shift within the party, Pilot said any shift is never overnight but a gradual one.

"The party has committed itself to strengthening the backwards, young people, women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities. These are the sections that form the largest chunks of our population and adequate representation of those sections is crucial," he said.

"At the party forum, we adopted the Udaipur declaration and are adhering to that. In all party appointments we are keeping that declaration in mind. The (generational) shift is happening automatically, there are many people who are now taking on leadership roles whether it is within Parliament or outside Parliament, whether in states or new people appointed in AICC, young people are now taking on leadership roles and are living up to the task," Pilot told PTI over phone from Jaipur.

Noting that the party had declared at its Belagavi conclave in December that 2025 will be the year of organisational empowerment, Pilot said the focus was on organisational reforms, filling up of vacant posts and making sure the party sticks to the Udaipur declaration by giving young people more political power.

"Mr Rahul Gandhi, Mr.Mallikarjun Kharge and Priyanka (Gandhi Vadra) ji are taking active interest in the functioning of the party, departments and frontal organisations like the IYC, NSUI, Sewa Dal, Mahila Congress and so on. We have committed ourselves to making 2025 as the year of rejuvenating and enthusing the party cadre; and we are going to see more ideological strengthening of the party, giving effective people more responsibilities and ensuring that those who are not up to the task make way for people that are working hard and performing," Pilot said.

Whether accountability would be the watchword going forward for the party, Pilot shot back, saying "it has to be".

Giving responsibility is one thing but every person, when he or she is given a job, has to be accountable, he stressed.

"There will be a constant review of who's performing and not performing. For example, in Rajasthan we have taken a decision that any office bearer of the party who does not attend three party meetings consecutively without proper reason, that person has to let go and give space to someone else," the Congress general secretary said.

Pilot said in the meetings at the Indira Gandhi Bhawan here, it has been decided that District Congress Committee chiefs will be given a much larger role and they will have more involvement in elections, financial management and selection process of candidates for elections.

All those aspects have been there before also but will be much more enhanced in the future, he added.

On Congress persons switching sides around the Lok Sabha polls and after that, Pilot said organisations are bigger than individuals and people come and go according to their likes and dislikes and political compulsions but the Congress is one of the oldest political organisations in the world and its commitment to serve the people whether in power or in the opposition remains intact.

"How to sharpen it, how to strengthen it, how to get more young people join the Congress fold is obviously a constant effort from the top leadership...The BJP has used central agencies to subjugate, defame, threaten, lure and character assassinate leaders from the opposition, especially from the Congress," he said.

"The Congress persons who are committed will forge on. Our top leadership has been attacked politically by the agencies but we have fought back, we will fight them legally and we will fight them on the streets," he said.

Pilot asserted that in politics, one has to be strong in convictions as there will be times that are good and there will be times that are bad.

"We were in government for 10 years, we are out of power for 10 years. But we need to have strength of convictions to fight the battle ahead. Times are hard because the BJP is leaving no stone unturned to subjugate the voice of the opposition, to suppress, entice and to undermine," Pilot said.

He asserted that Rahul Gandhi has led from the front and has asked tough questions in Parliament to take the government to task.

"We are performing the role of a constructive opposition while the BJP is raising emotive issues," he said.

Talking about the AICC session in Gujarat, Pilot said it is significant that after a long gap such an event is being held in Gujarat.

"I think Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi has made it very clear that we will focus very strongly on Gujarat. Politically, we have been strong in Gujarat and this AICC session will give a boost to all our workers in the country but most specifically to our leaders and workers in Gujarat," he said.

"Gujarat has always been a Congress bastion. However, in the last two decades or so we haven't been able to win elections but our vote share has been very strong there and it is bipolar politics in Gujarat. Mr. Gandhi has made several visits to the state of Gujarat recently also. I think he and Mr Kharge have taken it upon themselves that we have to revive, strengthen and restore the Congress' past glory in Gujarat," Pilot said.

Gujarat is an important state for us and we are ready to take up any challenge from the BJP, he added.

The AICC session in Ahmedabad will be themed 'Nyaypath: Sankalp, Samarpan and Sangharsh', with over 1,700 AICC members attending the main conclave on April 9.