I am full-time and hands-on Congress president: Sonia Gandhi to G-23 at key CWC meet
Sonia Gandhi on Saturday sought to blunt the G-23 leaders' campaign for immediate change in party leadership and send a clear message to the rebels by asserting in a Congress Working Committee meeting that she is a "full-time and hands-on" party president and there is no need to speak to her through the media.
Sonia, who took over the party's reins as interim president after Rahul Gandhi quit from the post, taking moral responsibility of the 2019 Lok Sabha poll debacle, did not mince words even as she did not mention any one by name while she set the tone for the meeting that was expected to have fireworks over organisational polls.
She said the revival of the party "requires unity and keeping the party’s interests paramount" and "above all, it requires self-control and discipline".
Her remarks came against the backdrop of G-23 leaders led by Ghulam Nabi Azad demanding a full-time party president and senior MP Kapil Sibal earlier holding a press conference saying that nobody knows who takes decisions in the party as there is no full-time president. The G-23 leaders had cited Sonia's request to be relieved as president owing to her health.
Devoting the last ten lines or 186 words of her 967-word speech to speak up her mind on the internal tussle, Sonia touched upon the issue of organisational elections after her critique of the Narendra Modi government. First, she provided the sequence of events leading to her taking up charge in 2019, first saying she was "acutely conscious of the fact" that she has been "interim" Congress president ever since the CWC asked her to return as chief.
She then pointed out that the CWC finalised a roadmap for electing a "regular" president by June 30 this year but the second wave led to the postponement of the plans and now a schedule for the full-fledged organisation elections is before them.
Then she said, "I am, if you will allow me to say so, a full-time and hands on Congress President... Never have we let issues of public importance and concern go unaddressed."
She said a large number of leaders, particularly the younger ones, have taken on leadership roles in taking party policies and programmes to the people, including the agitation of farmers, provision of relief during the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting issues of concern to youth and women, atrocities on Dalits, adivasis and minorities, price rise, and the destruction of the public sector.
Sonia said she has been taking these issues up with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as have former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi. "I have been interacting with like-minded political parties regularly. We have issued joint statements on national issues and coordinated our strategy in Parliament as well," she said.
"I have always appreciated frankness. There is no need to speak to me through the media. So let us all have a free and honest discussion. But what should get communicated outside the four walls of this room is the collective decision of the CWC," she said.
On upcoming Assembly elections, she said the party has started its preparations. "Undoubtedly, we face many challenges but if we are united, if we are disciplined and if we focus on the party’s interests alone, I am confident that we will do well," she said.
In her speech, she also referred to the ongoing agitation by farmers and said the "shocking" incidents at Lakhimpur Kheri recently "betrays the mindset" of the BJP, how it perceives the protest and how it has been dealing with this determined struggle by farmers to protect their lives and livelihoods.
She rued that the economy continues to be a "cause of great concern in spite of the government propaganda to make us believe that it is not".
Referring to the disinvestment drive, she said, "As we all know, the only answer the government seems to have for economic recovery is selling off national assets built with great effort over the decades. The public sector has had not just strategic and economic objectives -- it has had social goals as well, as, for instance, empowerment of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes and development of backward areas. But all this is in jeopardy with the Modi government’s single-point agenda of Becho, Becho, Becho (Sell, Sell, Sell)."
She said the prices of essential commodities continue to rise unabated. "Could anyone in the country ever imagine that petrol prices would be over Rs 100 a litre, diesel would be nearing the Rs 100 a litre mark, a gas cylinder would cost Rs 900 and cooking oil would be Rs 200 a litre. This is making life unbearable for people across the country," she said.
On the developments in Jammu and Kashmir, she said the minorities (Kashmiri Pandits) "clearly have been targeted" and this must be condemned in the "strongest possible terms".
She accused the government of damaging the consensus on foreign and neighbourhood policy because of the prime minister's continued reluctance to take the Opposition into confidence in any meaningful manner.
"Foreign policy has become a diabolical instrument of electoral mobilisation and polarisation. We face serious challenges on our borders and on other fronts. The Prime Minister telling the opposition leaders last year that there had not been any occupation of our territory by China and his silence ever since is costing our nation dearly," she added.
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