Salman Khurshid also denied that Congress was a rapidly disintegrating party.
New Delhi:
Congress is not a party in crisis and there is no leadership vacuum, a senior leader said today, rebutting colleagues who feel otherwise and have not held back their criticism since the party’s debacle in Bihar. “Sonia Gandhi is running Congress. Rahul Gandhi is running Congress. If you don’t think they are leading unless there are labels, then it is very difficult to satisfy,” said Salman Khurshid, disagreeing with leaders like Kapil Sibal, who have openly criticized party stasis.
Salman Khurshid, refuting the speech about a leadership crisis, said that it would be true only if there was no leader and no one could be elected as leader. “There is an element of concern about certain leadership decisions that will be made. They will be made,” said the congressional leader.
He also denied that Congress is a rapidly disintegrating party.
“I don’t accept that we have been rejected across the country. We don’t have that support that we obviously aspire to. I’m sure we have leaders,” Khurshid said.
“The fact is that we know who the leader is, the fact is that we follow the leader. If we follow the leader and we don’t get what you think we should get, doesn’t that mean we’re going to give up the leader? You don’t think we have a leader, so they don’t know what the game is about. “
Congress appeared as the weakest link in the opposition Bihar struggle, with a strike rate worse than many smaller parties.
The party also failed to score in by-elections held across the country, including Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, where Congress is among the main rivals. He prompted leaders like Kapil Sibal to comment that people no longer saw Congress as an alternative.
Mr Khurshid objected: “I don’t understand. We are in the opposition today, we have been seriously affected for months and even lost many elections. We are the largest opposition party. Is that to say that you cannot be anything other than the party winner? That there is no place in democracy for a losing party or a party that has been?
On Bihar ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), who called Congress a burden on the mahagathbandhan, Khurshid replied: “We could also have a point of view on the RJD. How is it any use to argue openly? All of us in the country has yet to learn what an alliance is, what coalition politics is about. We don’t seem to understand that. “
Congress, said the former Union minister, had gone through more difficult times in the past and had recovered. “We are sure that the party will recover. But it is up to us in the party to make that decision, right? Someone is telling us, being patronizing, that you should not make this decision. Your choice is bad. That is not fair. In a modern democracy, be paternalistic and impose on people something you think is good? “
He noted that in the past, the party had split and many leaders had resigned.
“We have a sense of comfort and faith. You can’t tell us that you don’t have to have comfort and faith,” he said.
On the leader of the Lok Sabha of Congress, Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, who suggested that discontents with the party should resign or form their own party, Khurshid said: “I will not ask anyone to leave. I do not have a monopoly in Congress. that only my views should prevail. I am saying please have respect for each other. You may have an opinion that may or may not be valid. Please convey it at the party. If we have an opinion contrary to that, the we will express too. “
He added: “This conversation was started by other people. I want to know what they want. I would be happy to hear that on the party forum. I have my own opinion, but I am not going to advertise that vision around the world. I will use that point of view within. of the party because I have faith that the party functions in a democratic way in which I can express my point of view. My point of view may not be finally accepted and it doesn’t matter if it is not accepted. There has to be a give and take inside a party “.
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