NEW DELHI: With the Gandhi family listening, Congress leaders said that the impression has been created that older people were unwanted at the party and considered not relevant, leading to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul gandhi to ensure that this was not the case and that their opinions and contributions were truly valued by the party.
The complaint and the seizure emerged in a five-hour discussion on Saturday attended by some of the Group G-23 of dissidents at the invitation of Sonia Gandhi along with other leaders such as the former Minister of Finance P Chidambaram, CM Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan and party treasurer Pawan Bansal.
With older people like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma (part of the G-23) and former MP CM Kamal When referring to seniors versus juniors, read as leaders close to Rahul Gandhi, they are divided, it is understood that Sonia Gandhi pointed out that the seniors were present at the meeting. Rahul Gandhi chimed in to say that he respects older people and dismissed as the wrong impression that an older generation is not required, noting that many were associates of his father.
According to sources, Rahul said that he treated Azad, Sharma, the former Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda (all letter writers) primarily as “friends of his father” who had worked to build Congress. He promised respect to the elderly. The meeting was the first interaction of its kind between the G-23 and congressional leadership after the August letter to Sonia calling for available full-time leadership and the subsequent rejection of the letter by the CAQ. Saturday’s meeting came in the context of Congress’s continued poor electoral performance, something the G-23 said was due to a lack of introspection. The meeting was seen as an icebreaker after considerable tensions had built up between dissidents and the official party group.
In interesting observations, Rahul said that RSS-BJP was so ingrained in the government that even when Kamal Nath was CM, the Sangh through their appointees in government ran the show. He noted that Nath could never work as CM and make his decisions, and the government collapsed in 15 months. When Chidambaram said that Congress will do well in the next assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Rahul replied that the party should not deceive itself and that it will be DMK who will fight at the polls, with Congress only as a small partner.
At one point, veteran AK Antony chimed in to say that Azad and Sharma, in addition to himself and others, had become leaders at a young age and the older generation also complained in the same way. Azad and Sharma said they would like to work in the party and die partying. However, there was a flatter speech, with former Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chavan saying that the nomination culture in the party should end and the elections for the working committee. At the end of the meeting, Azad said that if the party’s spokesman on Friday had announced that all matters were settled, what would the long discussions on Saturday be about.
With the Gandhi family in attendance, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and some of the young people appointed by the AICC such as General Secretary (Organization) KC Venugopal and AICC spokesperson Randeep Surjewala absent, older people raised issues of political defiance before Congress and how the party had regressed while the BJP had become a difficult enemy to face. Nath spoke about the “money, muscle and power of EVM” from BJP.
The demand for organizational reforms, mentioned in the controversial letter G-23, was also raised. In addition to Chavan, Vivek Tankha, Manish Tewari and Shashi Tharoor sought elections for the CWC. Chidambaram spoke about the need to resume parliamentary board practice to ensure clarity on issues. He also underscored the need to restructure the match from the stand level to make it more effective, as Rahul did.
Interestingly, some leaders urged Rahul Gandhi to take over the party. Fuente said he was silent on the matter, but added that the meeting should not be reduced to this point, as it usually happens. Rahul, complacent and also indirectly self-critical, expressed strong opinions on the functioning of the party and also on the strength of the BJP.
Rahul was also seen to be beating MP and Rajasthan together when he told leaders that Congress did not win the two states, but that BJP lost them. He pointed to Chhattisgarh as the true victory.
His comments came in response to comments from some participants that Congress won three states in 2018. Hooda said the party needed to recognize state leadership that was built over a long time. He claimed that some of the CPC heads appointed in recent months, such as in Delhi, were not known to anyone and said that the responsibility should be handed over to the mass leaders. The meeting ended with applause after Sonia Gandhi thanked the leaders.
Pawan Bansal, Harish Rawat and Chavan told reporters that the party will hold brainstorming sessions like Panchmarhi and Shimla in the future. Rahul Gandhi appeared to address the issue of dissent when he said there was a “communication gap” on his side and that they would now meet regularly. He said that no one can rebuild Congress and that collective work was required to that end. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka welcomed the leaders on the 10th turf, Janpath.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the party’s internal strategic communication was slow and workers were often unclear about their position to address the issues. Tankha complained that Congress had done nothing on the 1971 war anniversary, although it was a great example of the leadership of the Congressional government. It was attended by Ambika Soni, CM Ashok Gehlot, Bhakta Charan Das and Ajay Maken, among others.
On video: Sonia Gandhi meets with a section of dissidents in Congress, seeks to end the crisis
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