The Hindu : National : Panel wants Congress to turn cadre-based

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Panel wants Congress to turn cadre-based

Special Correspondent

Short and long-term plans of action chalked out for intra-party reforms

Moily panel identifies reasons for growing disillusionment with party
Only a committed cadre can stay permanently connected to masses

NEW DELHI: From a mass-based organisation, the Congress could well reinvent itself as a cadre-based party if the report of the panel on ‘Future Challenges and Opportunities’ is accepted. This is one of the key recommendations made by the panel, chaired by senior Congressman and Administrative Reforms Commission chairman Veerappa Moily.

Its report on ‘Intra-Party Reforms’ is close to being finalised and will be submitted to Congress president Sonia Gandhi shortly.

Non-committal on when the report will be submitted and refusing to give details, Mr. Moily told The Hindu that the panel had chalked out short and long-term plans of action for intra-party reforms.

Working on the premise that the Congress had to remain the pioneering party to sustain democracy, the panel sought to identify the reasons for the growing disillusionment with the organisation.

Learning a lesson or two from the cadre-based Left parties and taking a leaf out of the book of Britain’s Labour Party — which came back into the reckoning after two decades in political wilderness — the panel suggested ways of building capacity within, while making the party appealing to youngsters.

Stating that a clear parallel to the Labour Party could not be drawn as the Congress had never lost its relevance, Mr. Moily said the idea was to make the party pull its socks up.

Ever since the Election Commission began keeping vigil on poll expenses, the Congress had been feeling the absence of a committed cadre. “Given the kind of restrictions that the Election Commission is putting on expenses and mode of campaigning, eleventh-hour campaigning for brand ‘Congress’ is no longer enough. We need to have permanent structures in place for promoting this brand and only a committed cadre can remain permanently connected to the masses.”

Democratisation

To draw youth into the Congress, the panel suggested democratisation of the party structure, something that Rahul Gandhi, general secretary and member of this group, had been advocating time and again.

Asked how the panel proposed to do this in a party where young “leadership” emerged essentially from among the sons and daughters of its leaders, Mr. Moily said: “We have made some suggestions.”

Democratisation meant inner-party democracy where organisational elections were held in letter and in spirit as per schedule. To counter the charge that Congress organisational elections were orchestrated, the panel was of the view that the system should take over “leaders’ discretion” to ensure that democracy percolated down to the grass roots.

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