Sonia Gandhi said that an advisory group was drawn from the Congress Working Committee, the party’s highest decision-making authority, that would meet regularly under her chairpersonship to discuss and deliberate upon political issues and challenges before the party.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Sunday announced that the party will embark on a “Bharat Jodo” padyatra from October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and will also set a task force for internal reforms within a week.
An advisory body to advise the Congress President in day-to-day functioning will also be constituted, she said in her concluding remarks on the last day of the party’s three-day ‘Chintan Shivir’ (brainstorming camp) in this Rajasthan city.
“We will launch a national Kanyakumari to Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra from Gandhi Jayanti this year. All of us will participate in it. The Yatra is to strengthen the bonds of social harmony that are under stress, to preserve the foundational values of our Constitution that are under assault, and to highlight the day-to-day concerns of crores of our people,” Gandhi said.
“A compact Task Force will be set up to drive the process of internal reforms that are essential and that have been discussed in different groups here at Udaipur. These reforms with a focus on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls will cover all aspects of the organisation including structure, rules for appointments to party posts, communications and publicity, outreach, finances, and election management. The composition of the Task Force will be notified in the next two-three days,” she added.
Gandhi said that an advisory group was drawn from the Congress Working Committee, the party’s highest decision-making authority, that would meet regularly under her chairpersonship to discuss and deliberate upon political issues and challenges before the party.
“Of course, we do have the CWC that meets from time to time and that will continue. The new group is not, however, a collective decision-making body but will help me get the benefit of the vast experience of senior colleagues. It too will be notified very soon,” she said.
Among other plans, the Congress chief said that Phase 2 of the district-level Jan Jagran Abhiyan, which had been launched earlier, will resume a month later on June 15.
“This extensive campaign will highlight economic issues especially the growing unemployment and intolerable price rise that is destroying livelihoods.
“.. (This is) our determination. That is our NavSankalp (new resolution). The Congress will have a new Uday. That is our NavSankalp.”
‘No short cut to strengthening links with people’
There is no short cut to strengthening the relationship with the people but by Congress leaders and workers going out to them, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Sunday, advising party members to look at external issues, instead of internal affairs.
“We need to strengthen our relationship with people as Congress was born from the masses and we have fighting for the people in our DNA,” he said in his concluding remarks at last day of the Congress’ three-day ‘Chintan Shivir’ (brainstorming camp) in this Rajasthan city.
Citing the “frank conversation” in the party, he said: “We are attacked for allowing conversation… in the BJP, the voices are suppressed and people who have returned from the BJP have told me that the voices of Dalits and weaker section is stiffled.
“Which other political party in this country would allow this type of conversation… Certainly, the BJP, and RSS would never allow such a thing.”
Gandhi credited senior party leaders with showing “us the direction and there is a lot of clarity where the Congress has to go in terms of policy, thinking, and politics.
“I’m with you for the rest of my life. And I’m going to fight this fight with you and I am not afraid as I have not done corruption.”
The former Congress President warned that inflation will rise in near future, and so will unemployment, while attacks on India’s institutions are on the rise.
Push against Hindutva
The Congress resolution also mentioned about the fight for all sections of the society and particularly about the caste census, which is a big OBC push and the Congress leaders point that it may affect the BJP’s social engineering in many states, especially in the election-going states.
The Congress will be having a series of mass connect programmes in the run up to the elections in 2024 and reach out to the people as Rahul Gandhi has pointed out.
“There is no shortcut to strengthening the relationship with the people, but by the Congress leaders and workers going out to them,” Rahul Gandhi said on Sunday, advising the party members to look at external issues, instead of internal affairs.
“We need to strengthen our relationship with the people as the Congress was born from the masses and we have been fighting for the people which is in our DNA,” he said in his concluding remarks at the last day of the Congress’ three-day ‘Chintan Shivir’.
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