In the wake of its electoral losses in the recent assembly elections, several senior Congress leaders have spoken out in the last few days on the urgent need for change that encompasses a total revamp of the organisation, a new way of addressing the aspirations of the youth to remaining in a state of preparedness for polls.
‘No gag order’But unlike in the past, when such a public airing of views publicly would be officially disapproved of, on Monday, senior Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, responding to a question at the party’s official briefing, said, “There is no gag order — if the suggestions made are constructive, solution-based and the remarks are not personal.”
Mr. Singhvi, of course, has used social media to make his views public. On May 21, he tweeted: “1/2 Surgery never abt unifocal look at ldership. Includes specifics-3 & 6 mth prior declaration of MLA/MP candidates; new younger state faces” and “2/2(eg pilot in raj); new Gen secys; new cwc; micro mgmt; 50% pure merit & 50% region, caste etc; shunt usual faces/ names to advisory roles”.
In short, Dr Singhvi is suggesting, among other things, a new set of general secretaries, a revamped Congress Working Committee and saying the senior leaders must now play only advisory roles.
Defending ‘surgery’On Friday, another senior party spokesperson P.C. Chacko, responding to a question on party general secretary Digvijaya Singh’s call for “surgery”, defended the latter, saying he was speaking for the “welfare of the party” while adding that maybe, he should have said it in a party forum.
