With the process of electing a new Congress president around the corner, party senior leader Jairam Ramesh sought “consensus” in selecting the new AICC chief and sought to maintain the “prominence” of the Nehru-Gandhi family in organizational affairs across the board. kind of emerging situation. Ramesh, AICC general secretary in charge of communications, publicity and media, said that even if someone else is elected as the party chief in the October 17 polls, Sonia Gandhi will continue to be the person everyone looks up to and insisted on Rahul Gandhi. will be the “ideological compass” of the grand old organization.
He dismissed the suggestion that the Wayanad MP would “take a back seat” in case someone else becomes the Congress president and hailed the Gandhi scion as a very accommodating and democratic person. A party without a ‘high command’ would be ‘anarchy’, he said.
The former Union minister also countered part of the Congress leaders’ arguments against the high command culture, saying there would be anarchy in the party without such a mechanism. To support his arguments for the unanimous election of the new AICC chief, Ramesh invoked the “opinion” of legendary Congress leader K Kamaraj, which he said meant “talking to everyone and finding a suitable consensus choice” for the party leadership. “In the history of the Indian National Congress, we have generally chosen people on the basis of consensus. But there have been elections – in 1938, 1950, 1997 and 2000. But my view is the view of broad consensus – Kamaraj’s view.” I belong to the Kamaraj school,” Ramesh, a key Congress strategist, said as the Rahul Gandhi-led ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ reached near Kerala’s Kollam district.
The election notification will be issued on September 22, while the filing of nominations would begin on September 24 and continue until September 30. The election, if there are more candidates, will be held on October 17, or the counting of votes and the announcement of the results would be on October 19. Asked about the argument by a section of party leaders including Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor that a democratic contest for the post of Congress president would revive the Congress, Ramesh said that if consensus was not possible, “we should have elections”.
“Mr Tharoor is welcome to contest. It is a democratic process. We are the only political party to have an election for the post of President.” Ramesh also took a swipe at Tharoor and leaders arguing for organizational reforms and being elected as party president, calling it “unrealistic” to think that the Congress or any other party in India should be run along Labor and Conservative lines. parties in the United Kingdom.
“It’s unrealistic. I think people who say that don’t understand the reality of India,” said a senior Rajya Sabha MP. Responding to a query on the growing demand in the party to elect Rahul Gandhi as the AICC chief, Ramesh said the former Congress president was in a “special position” in the matter and it was up to him to take part in the polls or not. “People are asking him (Rahul) now, why are you a candidate? Are you a candidate? At the end of the nomination process, the same people could have asked him, why are you not a candidate? Mr. Gandhi is special. It’s up to him. I have no idea what he will do,” he said, adding that at present Gandhi and the party are concentrating on the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Ramesh said that when he discussed organizational elections two or three times with Rahul Gandhi, “he always told me – why not have elections…why are people not contesting”. “If people want to file their nomination papers, they are welcome to do so. He (Rahul) himself has said this – I welcome the election,” the AICC general secretary said. Rejecting arguments by Tharoor and several other members of the old G-23 grouping about the need to curtail or eliminate the “high command” culture in the Congress party, Ramesh said that each party has a high command and they call it by different names. .
“Do you think the BJP does not have a high command? Do you think the CPI(M) does not have a high command? Every party has a high command. Every party has a group of people who discuss, think, decide based on various factors. A party without a high command will anarchy,” he said. Asked who will be the Congress high command if a new president from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family is elected as the party chief, Ramesh said these were hypothetical questions now but said he was sure both Sonia and Rahul would continue to be respected and people will look up to them.
“Ms. Sonia Gandhi is a person that everyone looks up to. She will continue to be a person that everyone looks up to. Mr. Rahul Gandhi is a member of Parliament and is on a five-month Bharat Jodo Yatra. So he will be very prominent.” He will be an ideological compass,” he said. Ramesh further said that Rahul Gandhi will not take a backseat to run the organization in case someone else takes the helm of affairs. “I don’t see that. I think circumstances have changed and Mr. Gandhi is a person with strong views on issues. He is also a very accommodating, very democratic person. So Sonia Gandhi herself. So I don’t think there will be any friction. I don’t think that there will be some tension,” he added.
