NEW DELHI, June 4:
Congress President Sonia Gandhi will decide the party’s nominee for the post of the President, it was announced after a day-long meeting of the party’s top brass who deliberated on the issues facing the Congress-led UPA Government and the party.
Meeting after nearly a year after it was set up, the 20 members of CWC unanimously passed a resolution authorizing Gandhi to name the party candidate for the Presidential election due by the middle of next month.
The resolution was moved by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, widely regarded as a potential candidate for the post. Opinion was divided whether the fact that he moved the resolution was indicative of his prospects one way or the other.
The state of the party in the aftermath of its poll debacle in Uttar Pradesh came up for discussion with Gandhi mincing no words in telling Congressmen that they wasted energy on factionalism and “petty issues”.
Both the Congress President and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who took on Team Anna on the issue of corruption, dubbed the allegations against him and some Central ministers as “canards and falsehood”.
Gandhi saw the attacks by the civil society on the PM and Congress as part of a “conspiracy” and told both the party and the Government to “fiercely fight” such allegations.
Mukherjee, who also spoke at the day-long deliberations, said the “situation may be difficult but we would be able to retrieve. We will retrieve the situation. We have done it in the past”.
The meeting earlier saw a larger number of party leaders, mainly the PCC chiefs and CLP leaders, flagging concerns over rising prices and corruption.
The Finance Minister also chose the occasion to dispel the impression that the economic situation in the country is back to the one that had prevailed during the 1991, which had forced the Government to mortgage the gold reserve to meet the balance of payment problem.
A highlight of the deliberations was the attack on UPA allies Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress as also the need for a strategy to fight regional parties.
Party spokesperson Manish Tewari attacked CAG alleging the way the audit body was conducting itself was “detrimental” to the interest of the Government and wondered whether it would be allowing CAG to “behave like a loose canon”.
Tewari as also Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna suggested the Government should give the impression that it was functioning.
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said it is time for a shake-up in the party on the lines of Kamraj Plan and the old leadership should step down to pave way for the takeover by young ones.
Kamraj Plan was effected by Jawaharlal Nehru under which senior ministers had resigned from the Government to make themselves available to work for the organisation.
Recalling the adage that charity should begin at home, Hooda told Gandhi that he was ready to take up any work assigned by her.
Kerala state chief of the party Ramesh Chennithala was critical of the petrol price hike.
“The common man does not understand statistics”, he said adding there is a need for urgent steps to bring down the prices. Chennithala also said the Government should bring back the Administered Price Mechanism to help the common man.
Central ministers also came under attack during the deliberations with several leaders complaining that while the Congress President and the Prime Minister were accessible, it was not the case with “some of our honorable ministers”.
The refrain was that these ministers do not give time to party workers when they visit the non-Congress ruled states and that they praise Chief Ministers of opposition parties.
Asked about the concerns raised in the meeting, Mukherjee merely said that members express their opinion freely in the highest decision making body of the party.
“Various members had various suggestions. Obviously young leaders will have to come. Older people cannot continue for all the time,” he said, adding that Congress has always provided youth leadership to the country and it was visible in the changes in the leadership of the party from 1960 to 2004.
On questions about party leaders raising the issue of coalition pressures, Mukherjee said that it was not a question of value judgement as decisions are taken at a particular point of time keeping in mind the prevailing situation then.
The Finance Minister said that the CWC meeting reviewed the entire political situation.
Asking partymen to shun factionalism, Gandhi said that the organisation would grow doubly if partymen use half the energy that they waste on factionalism and petty issues.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh also underlined the need for the leaders and workers of Congress party to “educate the public about the canards and falsehood spread by those who are opposed to us”.
A total of 115 leaders including those from the front wings of the party, Parliamentary wing and Central Election Committee were invited of which 98 participated. 42 of those participated expressed their views including two Chief Ministers. No AICC general secretary spoke on the occasion.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rejected the charges of Team Anna that the Government had “swindled unbelievable amounts” of money and hit out at yoga guru Ramdev for claiming that “astronomical” sums of black money can be brought back from other countries in one stroke.
Addressing the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting here, he said “canards and falsehood” were being spread by “disparate” and “desparate” elements and asked the party cadres to effectively tackle the “misinformation”.
In an apparent reference to yoga guru Ramdev and Team Anna, Singh said, “Every day one hears of astronomical sums of black money that can be brought back in one stroke. It is alleged that in every area of its activity, our Government has swindled unbelievable amounts of money. Nothing can be farther from the truth.”
The assertive statement by the Prime Minister came a day after Ramdev and Anna Hazare held a day-long protest here, with the yoga guru attacking the government over black money.
The Team Anna has been alleging that thousands of crores had been misappropriated by various departments and ministers.
“The truth is that our Government is fully committed to tackle the menace of corruption in public life and bring about transparency and accountability in the work of Government authorities. And we have proved this by taking action on multiple fronts,” Singh said.
“The legislative and administrative action we have taken in this area speaks for itself,” he added.
The Prime Minister said, “the misinformation being spread by disparate, desperate elements, unified only by their opposition to our Government, needs to be tackled effectively.”
Singh underlined the need for the leaders and workers of Congress party to “educate the public about the canards and falsehood spread by those who are opposed to us”.
He maintained that the Congress is a party whose policies, programmes and promises are focussed on the “well-being” of the common man.
“It is only the Congress party that can take the country forward on a path of progress in which each and every citizen shares the fruits of development. It is only the Congress party which can carry with it all sections of our society,” the Prime Minister said.
“We have an onerous responsibility on our shoulders and we must not fail this responsibility,” he said, adding “I have no doubt that we will emerge stronger from these testing times.”
Singh said the UPA Government had made every effort to fulfill the promises made to the ‘aam aadmi’ (common man) by delivering high growth rate, implementing programmes for social and economic inclusion on “a scale never seen before” and taking “unprecedented” steps to empower the citizens.
Listing out various achievements of the Government, he said poverty is declining faster than it did before UPA took charge, real wages are increasing, agricultural growth has accelerated and economic security has been ensured.
He also cited developments in other fields like internal security, defence, telecom, education, social and health sectors.
At the same time, he acknowledged that naxal-affected districts “remain a problem area”. (PTI)
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