Actor-turned-politician Khushbu Sundar is the fifth congressional spokesperson to jump ship or be fired since March 2019 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections last year.
The first to switch sides was Gandhi family loyalist Tom Vadakkan, who joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March 2019, accusing Congress of questioning the integrity of the armed forces after the airstrikes of Balakot.
Vadakkan, once considered close to Vincent George, a former aide to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, had been associated with the party’s media department for nearly 20 years, many of them under leaders such as Pranab Mukherjee and VN Gadgil.
In the recent organizational shakeup in the BJP, Vadakkan was appointed as one of the party’s spokesmen. Vadakkan’s departure was followed by that of Priyanka Chaturvedi, who left Congress to join the Shiv Sena in April 2019.
Chaturvedi, who was the coordinator of the Congressional media cell, was upset about the reinstatement of some Uttar Pradesh party workers who had misbehaved with her earlier during a press conference in Mathura. The Shiv Sena later nominated her Rajya Sabha.
Then it was the turn of former Jharkhand head of Congress and spokesman Ajoy Kumar, who joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in September 2019, just before the assembly elections in the tribal-dominated state. He had complained about the performance of the party’s Jharkhand leadership. However, a year later, Kumar returned to the fold of Congress in September.
Announcing his return to Congress on Twitter, he said: “Silence turns to cowardice when the occasion demands speaking the whole truth and acting accordingly. – Mahatma Gandhi. Driven by my conscience to speak out against injustice and institutional capture, I was inspired by Shri Rahul Gandhi and decided to return to INCIndia today. ”
But before Kumar’s return, Congress in June this year removed Sanjay Jha as the party’s spokesman after he publicly criticized the party’s operation and questioned the leaders. Jha had written an article in the Times of India on June 7, saying that it is a false claim that Congress had an internal platform for the frank exchange of ideas to get the party back on track.
“It is a false claim that there is a strong internal democratic process that listens to individual voices and, more importantly, continually focuses on party renewal, political strategy, tactical warfare, leadership development, and resuscitation. starting from the grassroots, the old PSU of Congress ”, he wrote in the article.
And on Monday, Sundar became the fifth congressional speaker to walk away. Shortly after joining the BJP, he told reporters that if the nation has to move forward, we need someone like Prime Minister Narendra Modi to steer the country in the right direction.
“My expectation of BJP is not about what party is going to do for me, but about what party is going to do for the people of the country. When you have 128 million million people who really believe in a man and that is our prime minister, I think they are doing something absolutely correct, ”he added.
Earlier, in his resignation letter to the President of Congress, Sundar wrote: “Few elements sitting at higher levels within the party, people who have no connectivity to basic reality or public recognition are dictating terms and people like me who wanted working for him sincerely, they are being pressured and repressed. ”
The actress had earned the ire of Tamil Nadu Congress leaders after she took a divergent position on the issue of the National Education Policy (NEP). While Congress had strongly opposed the policy, she welcomed it. Sundar later apologized to former congressional speaker Rahul Gandhi, but insisted that he “would rather talk about the fact than be a nodding robot or a puppet.”
A congressional official blamed those responsible for the communications department for the departure of the spokesmen who are also faces of the party in the media.
“It is surprising to see that these spokesmen find it difficult to defend the leaders and therefore prefer to jump ship. Our media managers have also failed to keep their house in order, “he said.
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