By Aditya Vikram Singh/New Delhi:
Political pundits have since long spelled doom for the the Congress Party in India and the latest shocker has come from no other than the outfit’s own General Secretary and Leader of Opposition in Upper House Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, also ex Chief Minister of erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, now a Union Territory since August 05, 2019.
Close on the heals of a recent interview of senior party leader and prominent lawyer Kapil Sibal to The Indian Express, Ghulam Nabi Azad over a couple of days back, said that Congress party needed immediate organizational reforms as the organization structure of the congress party has collapsed completely. Office bearers needed to be elected instead of being appointed, Azad emphasized.
Congress Party, the 134-year old political behemoth of India, which has witnessed declining prospects barring a few State assembly elections like Punjab, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, of late, has problems aplenty, owing to leadership crisis and crux in the Central leadership of the party.
The party has been without a national head or leadership for over past one and a half years, with ex party president Rahul Gandhi refusing to take leadership role or wear the mantle of the party president. The leadership crisis has further deepened amidst media reports about aging Sonia Gandhi’s declining health.
According to party General Secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad, it’s high time that the Congress party badly needed self -introspection, and long due organizational reforms to end the internal bickering within the party leaders, and contact and communication should be established with grassroot cadres.
According to party insiders, there was no communication within the party on the issue of Art 370, which was abrogated by the NDA government on August 05, 2019. Likewise, there were hardly any dialogues on India joing the RCEP or backing out from the RCEP. Besides, there was also no party dialogue on whether to join the Gupkar group or not, in Jammu and Kashmir, an amalgamation of various political outfits including JKNC and PDP, once the two arch rivals.
In August, this year, a group of 23 senior leaders of the Congress party that included Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad, and also senior members of the CWC wrote to Sonia Gandhi for holding a CWC meeting in order to end the leadership crisis deadlock. However, instead of resolving the leadership issue, axe fell on some leaders who wrote the letters.
Acknowledging the problems within the party, Ghulam Nabi Azad said that the five star culture followed by some of the leaders of the party should be abandoned if the Congress wanted to revive itself for future and contact with the grassroot cadres and mass contact with the common public should be established across the country.
Echoing issues raised by Ghulam Nabi Azad another senior party leader Karti Chidambaram said that the congress has ceased to play effective opposition party due to lack of clear strategy and guidelines from the top leadership. Organizational weaknesses, coupled with loss of several State assembly elections, have been demoralising for the party which has witnessed poor performance for yet another round in the just concluded Bihar assembly elections despite grand alliance with RJD and other like minded parties in Bihar.
Senior journalist Sanjay Singh said the Congress party needed paradigm shift in its organizational structure to revive itself and come out of crisis. Mamta Chopra, another senior journalist from New Delhi opined that the recent letter bomb has caused enough embarrassment to the top leadership of the Congress party.
(Author Aditya Vikram Singh is a senior journalist, currently associated with Democratic Accent as Special Correspondent. He is well-known for his hard-hitting stories and investigative reporting, and has extensive experience in all important beats. He had previously worked with reputed groups such as Indian Express and Hindustan Times.)
