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NEW DELHI: Amid persistent criticism by senior leaders about the drift in the party, with leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad renewing the debate, Congress on Monday said seniors should desist from airing private views in public and observe discipline which is a must for any organisation to work coherently.
Facing a barrage of questions about Azad’s comments about the prevalence of a five-star culture in the party and the Gandhi family lacking genuine feedback, AICC spokesman Pawan Khera said, “Discipline is an important ingredient in any party or institution’s functioning. There has to be a basic modicum of discipline.”
With G23 members Azad and former minister Kapil Sibal persisting with their criticism even after three panels were announced that sought to accommodate some of the dissenters, Congress avoided getting into specifics of comments like Azad’s “clean chit for now” to the Gandhis, which meant a temporary, and somewhat condescending absolving of the “first family” from the responsibility for poor performance, or his demand for internal elections to every post. “I have not seen the interview,” Khera said.
Congress leader and Haryana MLA Kuldeep Bishnoi accused Azad of hatching a conspiracy to split the party at the behest of BJP. He said Azad had no credibility in asking for elections to party posts, saying he has grown politically by being nominated to every post starting with as J&K Youth Congress president.
“What is your history? In entire life, you have won only three polls. Are you giving advice to the Congress Party. Are you talking against the Gandhi family which nominated you to the Rajya Sabha on five occasions,” Bishnoi said.
However, the party appeared embarrassed as also peeved by the strong jibes from the senior leader who has held several organisational posts and been a minister in Congress governments, as Khera let out some sarcasm in his plea for discipline.
“These are senior leaders who are nominated members to the CWC and have enjoyed nominated positions in the party and the government. We have learnt good lessons about discipline from them,” he said. The underlining of “nominated” positions is loaded as the dissidents like Azad have flagged “nomination” of office-bearers as the reason behind the weakening of the party and demanded that elections be held to all posts.
At the same time, AICC said that these leaders should also give their views about elections to the Youth Congress. It appeared an attempt to flag contradiction in the demand of “G-23” as Rahul Gandhi’s experiment of internal polls in Youth Congress and NSUI has been criticised by them.
Khera said he had not encountered any five-star culture in the agitations that Congress held recently to “secure justice for the Hathras Dalit family or for farmers against draconian laws”.
