Salman Khurshid, a former union minister, is among the many leaders thought-about near the Gandhis. (File)
New Delhi:
Asserting that there was no urgency to have an elected Congress president, senior chief Salman Khurshid on Sunday mentioned he “cannot” see the heavens falling” for the necessity of a celebration chief as Sonia Gandhi was nonetheless on the helm and needs to be the one to determine on the management difficulty.
Khurshid, a former Union minister and among the many leaders thought-about near the Gandhi household, instructed PTI in an interview that he wouldn’t have signed the letter even when he was approached by the group that wrote to Gandhi in search of pressing organisational overhaul, together with an energetic and full-time management.
On Ghulam Nabi Azad, essentially the most vocal among the many 23 letter writers, in search of organisational elections to make sure that the Congress doesn’t stay out of energy for many years, Khurshid mentioned the senior chief from Jammu and Kashmir had been a part of the highest echelons of the social gathering for years when there was no such elections and nonetheless the social gathering prospered.
He mentioned in all probability Azad wished a change now in what the social gathering has been doing through the years and expressed confidence that the management will give a thought to what he’s saying as he’s a senior chief Khurshid mentioned the leaders who’ve written to Sonia Gandhi at all times had entry to her and will have approached her slightly than writing to her.
“It is extremely clear that the necessary individuals on this letter do belong to the highest echelons of our social gathering and due to this fact Mrs Gandhi has indicated that it was finest that they may have mentioned it inside the confines of the social gathering,” he mentioned.
Khurshid’s remarks assume significance as they arrive days after the “group of 23” wrote to Gandhi calling for far-reaching reforms inside the social gathering comparable to having a “full time, energetic and visual” management, devolution of powers to state items and revamping the Congress Working Committee (CWC) in step with the social gathering structure.
Requested in regards to the ideas made within the letter, Khurshid mentioned the dialogue appears to be about electing a frontrunner and the Congress president has indicated that it may be completed at an applicable time when bodily it’s attainable.
“For folks like me, we have already got leaders, we’ve got a frontrunner in Mrs Sonia Gandhi, we’ve got a frontrunner in Rahul Gandhi. So for me there isn’t any sense of urgency about electing leaders. Electing a president, sure that can occur when it occurs, I am unable to see the heavens falling down. What’s the sense of urgency that’s being expressed, is just not clear to me,” he mentioned.
“We do not have a part-time president, we’ve got a full-time president however the full-time president is an interim president and no unusual individual as an interim president as she is the longest serving president. We should simply belief and depart it to the longest serving president to take steps when she thinks it’s applicable,” the Congress chief mentioned.
On whether or not it will have been higher to go to the president for articulating considerations than writing a letter, Khurshid mentioned the leaders had completed that for the final 20 years and he didn’t know what was totally different now or had modified that they felt the necessity to write a letter.
Requested about the way forward for the social gathering with knives out inside the organisation at a time it must be revitalised, he mentioned, “The pens are out, so what’s the downside. In fact the phrases written with pens can harm they usually did, however they do not draw blood…it is solely ink, it is one thing we are able to dwell with and I’m certain that the ink will fade in the end.”
Khurshid mentioned nobody had approached him for signing the letter and even when anybody had completed so, he wouldn’t have signed as a result of he doesn’t agree with the letter.
“There’s nothing about that letter that provides a chance for me to precise and say that I’ll wish to say…We have now at all times spoken instantly with the management, so I do not know what modified due to which individuals are not talking instantly. Nothing has modified for me and due to this fact, I do not see the urge for writing the letter,” he mentioned.
Khurshid mentioned he nonetheless feels that as a substitute of leaders repeatedly urging Rahul Gandhi to come back again as social gathering chief, they have to depart the choice to him.
“Absolutely he understands the implications of that letter greater than I do, he’ll do what he thinks is the perfect to do,” he mentioned, when requested if it was now crucial for Rahul Gandhi to return as social gathering chief to set the home so as.
After the seven-hour assembly of the social gathering’s prime decision-making physique final week, the CWC urged Sonia Gandhi to proceed as its interim chief until an AICC session may very well be convened and authorised her to impact mandatory organisational adjustments to take care of the challenges going through the social gathering.
It made it clear nobody can be permitted to undermine or weaken the social gathering and its management.
The CWC additionally resolved that inner-party points can’t be deliberated via the media or in public fora and all such points have to be raised inside the social gathering “within the curiosity of propriety and self-discipline”.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
