Congress at the crossroads: Sachin Pilot

"Changes to come soon to put in place a 21st-century Congress", says the former union minister

July 07, 2014 03:50 pm | Updated December 04, 2021 11:05 pm IST - New Delhi

A file photo of Congres leader and former union minister Sachin Pilot.

A file photo of Congres leader and former union minister Sachin Pilot.

Admitting that the party was at crossroads and there were short comings both in the organisation and the UPA government, former Union Minister Sachin Pilot on Monday said “changes will happen soon” to put in place a 21-century Congress.

Refusing to blame Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for the poll debacle, the young leader said the party Mr. Gandhi “should not be seen in isolation” and that he would focus on states where Congress had done disastrously in the Lok Sabha elections.

Mr. Pilot also said that the statement of senior leader A K Antony on the issue of secularism would be discussed “threadbare” internally.

“You don’t take knee jerk reactions when you take decisions. We are at crossroads, let’s be clear about it.

Congress party is down to 44 MPs in Parliament and this is a huge setback for us and never before it has come to this low level.

“Obviously there were shortcomings in the organisation and in the (previous) government. That is why the numbers are so poor. We are not living in denial, we have accepted the defeat with humility,” Mr. Pilot said in an interview to PTI .

He was replying to a question about why no changes have been effected in the party despite the debacle.

Underlining that Congress has a “historical political responsibility”, he said the party will undergo changes and Sonia Gandhi will effect those changes after having discussions and feedback from the whole country.

“It is not about sitting one day and deciding to overhaul the structure. Changes will happen, accountability will be established, the road ahead will be charted out and the Congress party will present itself in the 21st century avatar and reach out to regain the faith and confidence,” he said.

Asked if there is scope for improvement in Mr. Gandhi’s leadership, he said, “Let us not look at him in isolation because he belongs to the Congress party. I also belong to the Congress party. The best thing that I can do is win elections....

“Of course, we did not do right things and did not properly communicate but this whole fact finding issue of why we lost etc, this is done at a structured level in the Congress party.”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.