HW News, in an interview with Mr. Sanjay Jha, tried to dwell on the critique written by Mr. Jha about his own party and what message he has been trying to convey by these rebellious acts.
Mumbai| President of Maharashtra chapter of All India Professional Congress (AIPC) and national spokesperson of Congress Party, Sanjay Jha, raised many eyebrows when he penned down a critique in form of an article in Times of India questioning the internal functioning of Congress party.
HW News, in an interview with Mr. Jha, tried to dwell on the critique written by Mr. Jha about his own party and what message he has been trying to convey by these rebellious acts.
When asked whether he was disillusioned with Congress Party, Mr. Jha said, “It’s because I care for the Congress party, it’s because I am ideologically a Congressman. I believe in secularism, tolerance, inclusive growth, progressive thinking, and the fact that India needs to be a democracy.”
“One of the reasons behind my disenchantment with the Congress party is what have we done acter losing the 2019 elections? In a normal situation, you take the defeat in your stride and try to find out why you are losing to the BJP. Party needs to sit together and evaluate what has gone wrong and then try to fix the problem,” Mr. Jha further added.
Stressing that the criticism is coming from someone who’s fighting for Congress party for several years, Mr. Jha cleared the air around the rumours of him quitting the Congress party. He said, “Let me put this on public record, I am not leaving the Congress in my entire life. I am not joining any other political party. If there’s any such speculation, it’s absolutely trash. Don’t even waste your time on it.”
“The reason why I was compelled to write is that there are no internal discussions happening with the kind of passion and perseverance. That should happen.”
“I have been compelled to take a public position because no one is willing to listen to you within the party,” he said.
“There are forums in Congress party for such discussions, but they are not being used. Nobody is using them. You will always hear these words in Congress party- Coterie, Cabal and Caucus. And all these words will tell you that decisions are being taken by very few people, who are veterans and all, I don’t want to name them.”
Jha said he’s been asking a fundamental question that whether leadership sitting in Delhi can read the mood of people in Tamilnadu, Odisha, West Bengal or North-East.
While stressing on the decentralisation of the party, Mr. Jha said, “BJP in its functioning is itself an anti-democratic party. Congress is inherently a liberal, secular, democratic entity. But the problem we have created is self-inflicted, where we have allowed a mindless drift. We have given perception to people that the party has a high command culture, everybody sits in Delhi and all decisions are taken by 3-4 people. At the end of the day, the party is controlled by a very small team of people who believe in ‘I scratch my back, you scratch your’. This is a terrible reputation for the Congress party.”
Jha also said that he believes firmly an organisation succeeds only when there’s transparency, open communication, exchange of ideas. He said he believes that the Congress leadership has good intent, but they have not transpired on the ground level.
Giving the reference of the letter Jawaharlal Nehru had written to himself anonymously in a newspaper, warning himself that he may become highly autocratic in the future, Jha said that is the kind of democracy the Congress party is capable of.
Jha also expressed his dismay that if he, being a senior spokesperson of the party for many years, isn’t being heard by the leadership, he can imagine what is happening to many other people.
Talking about the Congress Working Committee (CWC), Mr. Jha said that CWC has been a failure. “CWC had been given the responsibility to select or elect a leader after Rahul Gandhi resigned. They could have invited people who wanted to become Congress president.”
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