The president of Congress, Sonia Gandhi, formed three committees on Friday to consider and discuss issues and policies related to the economy, foreign affairs and national security, accommodating some congressmen who in recent months have raised questions about the functioning of the party . All committees will be headed by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In addition to Singh, the economic affairs committee will include former Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jairam Ramesh, who will also be its convener, as well as former Prime Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Digvijaya Singh. Chidambaram was one of those who expressed concern about the party’s performance in the Bihar elections.
On the foreign affairs committee, Singh will be assisted by former Union ministers Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor and Salman Khurshid, as well as Saptagiri Sanka Ulaka, a member of the Lok Sabha of Koraput in Odisha. Khurshid has been named its convener. Tharoor and Sharma were among 23 signatories to a letter to party chairwoman Sonia Gandhi in August this year, seeking internal elections and an organizational review.
The former prime minister will also head the national security committee. Its members are Ghulam Nabi Azad (another signatory to the August letter), former Union Minister M Veerappa Moily (also signatory), Vincent H Pala, a member of Lok Sabha from Shillong in Meghalaya, and V Vaithilingam, former Prime Minister of Puducherry . . Pala is its convener.
The committees must help the party to generate coherent messages on important issues. For example, the position of Congress on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Association has been confusing. While Ramesh said that India has done the right thing by not joining the group, Sharma, a former trade minister, called not joining the group “a strategic mistake.”
The appointments come in the context of rumors within Congress about the outcome of the assembly elections in Bihar, and the 58-seat elections in 11 states.
Of these, Congress won only 12, while the BJP won 40, comfortably retaining power in Madhya Pradesh and gaining a majority alone in Manipur. Congress held 44 of these 58 seats before and failed to win any seats in the by-elections in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha and Telangana.
In Bihar, Congress won just 19 of the 70 seats it contested and, according to some analysts, affected the chances of the opposition alliance toppling the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.
As a result, a war of words broke out in Congress. Senior leader and former Union minister Kapil Sibal, one of 23 signatories, questioned leaders about the election debacle and asked if it was “business as usual.”
Sibal was countered by Rajasthan Prime Minister Ashok Gehlot, former Union Ministers Salman Khurshid and Mallikarjun Kharge, and the party leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the President of the Youth Congress Srinivas BV, the head of the unit of Delhi Anil Chaudhary and other leaders.
In an interview with Dainik Bhaskar earlier this week, Chidambaram said that the party’s performance in the assembly elections in Bihar and preliminary polls show that “there is no organizational presence on the ground or has weakened considerably.” He said Congress fought more seats in Bihar than its organizational strength, and called for a “comprehensive review.” Chidambaram added that he was “more concerned” about the results of the by-elections.
Chidambaram, a former finance minister, tweeted on Monday: “Born in RCEP, it is the largest trade body in the world. 15 nations in our region are members of RCEP, India is not among them. There are pros and cons of India joining RCEP, but the debate has never taken place in Parliament … It is another bad example of unacceptable centralized decision-making in a democracy. “
The president of Congress had declared last year that the signing of the RCEP will be a “blow to the body” to the economy. After India abandoned the mega free trade agreement last year, Congress proclaimed itself victorious, saying that its vigorous opposition had ensured that the BJP-led government withdrew from the agreement.
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