Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday called for “both structural changes and changes in leadership styles” in the party even as vice-president Rahul Gandhi maintained that the challenge for the party does not come from the BJP but from within.
They were addressing a Congress Working Committee meeting called to discuss organisational matters and draw up a strategy to take on the government’s ‘anti-farmer and anti-poor policies.’
“Back to the roots” is what the mother-son duo prescribed, not just to mobilise farmers and the poor against the land acquisition ordinance and ‘anti-welfare’ decisions of the Modi government but also to energise the lower levels of the party’s organisational structure.
Ms. Gandhi criticised the “dictatorial tendencies” of the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence on the provocative statements and speeches by members of the Sangh Parivar.
She questioned the promulgation of a slew of ordinances over the past fortnight, stating that with 10 in seven months, the government was averaging roughly one ordinance every 28 days.
“Congress committees at all levels do not feel fully empowered,” Mr. Gandhi is reported to have said.
