Udaipur: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor describes the party’s Chintan Shivir as an exercise in reform and revival. He said that the proof of the pudding is in the eating and it remains to be seen whether the process will end up where many leaders wanted it to.
Shashi Tharoor was one among the group of 23 leaders who had written to party chief Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking large-scale reforms. He said that the reformists at the end of the day wanted a more consultative process where a wide variety of voices would be heard and taken into account before decisions were made.
Speaking with PTI he said, “If such discussions occur in the proposed advisory council, the purpose would have been served.”
“But that remains to be seen,” he added.
“Our proposals like the revival of the parliamentary board and the idea of elections to the Working Committee were both intended to bring fresh voices to the table. The final decisions after such discussions would always rest with the leadership,” he asserted.
Following Chintan Shivir in Udaipur, Sonia Gandhi announced an advisory group drawn from the Congress Working Committee. She Said, “It was not a collective decision-making body and would help her get the benefit of senior colleagues’ vast experience.”
Tharoor, referring to the deliberations at the Shivir said, “Serious discussions were held in a constructive spirit amid much talk of change in the air. But whether it will end up where many of us had wanted remains to be seen.” “Let’s say a process has begun that still needs to unfold over the next few months. The cliché holds true: the proof of the pudding is in the eating,” the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram added.
“Still, there remains no doubt that Rahul Gandhi would be the preferred choice of an overwhelming majority of party workers. He has not indicated whether he wants the job.” “I suppose we will have to wait for the proposed AICC (All India Congress Committee) to settle that issue,” Tharoor said.
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