Former Union minister Ashwani Kumar resigned from the Congress get together Tuesday, In an interview to The Indian Express, Kumar says the longer term management that the get together gives just isn’t what the nation needs. Additionally, the infinite look ahead to appointments with senior leaders to debate get together affairs is a really diminishing expertise, he mentioned.
Ashwani Kumar additionally added that he doesn’t contemplate any political get together a pariah and it’s unfair to single out any particular person for all of the ills within the nation.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q. Why did you determine to go away the Congress?
A. This is my second of reckoning. It was a painful determination which needed to be made. I had to decide on between competing loyalties, to the nation, to myself and to leaders and pals. Plenty of thought has gone into the choice, which introduced me to the conclusion that I can’t make a helpful contribution to the general public and political discourse within the nation at this essential time throughout the framework of the Congress get together. I might have both walked into the sundown or opted for the remaining years of energetic life in public service. I’ve opted for the latter. The Congress has ceased to be the mouthpiece of nationwide aspirations and doesn’t promise a transformative management to the nation, however my private regard for Mrs Sonia Gandhi. The inner processes of the get together diminished particular person leaders, which collectively debilitated the get together. Hope for correctives stands belied. The spectacle in Punjab has additional satisfied me that the Congress has misplaced its moorings as a celebration of progressive change.
Q. You mentioned that the Congress has ceased to be the mouthpiece of nationwide aspirations and doesn’t promise a transformative management to the nation. Why do you suppose so?
A. Because the continual decline of the Congress by way of vote proportion, by way of fashionable assist clearly reveals that the get together is out of sync with the way in which the nation thinks. It is the operate of a political get together to each gauge the nationwide temper and the place crucial to remodel it. Can anyone severely or actually deny that this has not been the case with the Congress get together.
Q. What is the nationwide temper that you’re speaking about which the Congress, you consider, goes towards?
A. The nationwide temper just isn’t in favor of the choice that the Congress get together presents to the folks by way of its future management.
Q. By future management you imply Rahul Gandhi?
A. I do not need to take any names.
Q. Have you at any level of time within the final seven-and -a-half years conveyed these views to the management…Sonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi?
A. I’ve on a number of events expressed my views in writing to the Congress president. During my lengthy affiliation together with her, I can say that her personal instincts and judgment are unexceptionable. But for some motive the stamp of her judgment just isn’t distinguished within the current previous.
“It is the function of a political party to both gauge the national mood and where necessary to transform it. Can anybody seriously or honestly deny that this has not been the case with the Congress party”. File/Express picture by Kamleshwar Singh
Q. Where is the Congress going mistaken?
A. There could possibly be many solutions to this query, however I can say that the get together has misplaced its join with the folks, and apart from a only a few revered leaders, typically talking there’s a state of inertia within the get together.
Q. A gaggle of senior leaders, now referred to as G 23, had written to Mrs Gandhi calling for sweeping modifications within the get together. You weren’t a signatory to that letter however do you agree with their ideas? Despite their letter, nothing has modified within the get together within the final two years.
A. The method I learn that letter as printed within the press… its focus was solely on elections throughout the get together with out touching upon the opposite main substantive points which can be ailing the get together. It appeared as if a few of these leaders had been angling just for positions themselves within the increased construction of the get together. And due to this fact, I believed that the main focus was flawed.
Q. Although you may have resigned from the get together, what in your view… given your lengthy affiliation with the Congress… could possibly be performed to revive the get together. Or is it a degree of no return for the get together?
A. You can by no means write the epitaph of a celebration as previous because the Congress. There is nothing mistaken with the ideology of the Congress. I don’t need to give unsolicited recommendation anymore however what the Congress wants desperately is to carry into existence a really collective management construction wherein seniority and benefit could be given due respect and the elders usually are not denuded of their dignity.
Ashwani Kumar’s resignation letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Q. Is that occuring within the Congress now?
A. Of course it’s occurring within the Congress. Endless ready for appointments with senior leaders to debate get together affairs is a really diminishing expertise. I do not need to take names or discuss people.
Q. Many younger leaders have left the get together. There was a way that they left as a result of they had been not sure of their political future with the Congress. The get together, after all, mentioned they had been opportunists… That they had been on the lookout for posts and positions. A senior chief such as you… you may have been an MP, minister…
A. I do not blame them (those that left the get together). I’ve held all of the positions. I do not want any place. Life is a take a look at of endurance. I believed that I owed it to myself to not be part of a diminishing experiment anymore. At the top of the day, when decisions need to be made between competing loyalties, the foremost loyalty should be in the direction of one’s personal sense of proper and to 1’s dignity.
Q. You spoke concerning the spectacle in Punjab.
A. The political discourse concerning the workplace of the chief ministership, the language utilized by senior leaders with reference to one another in the course of the marketing campaign and the way in which Captain Amarinder Singh was humiliated into resignation was painful and has had a really adverse impact on the folks of Punjab. It seems to me that except we now have all acquired it mistaken, this can be a wave election in favor of the Aam Aadmi Party. I do not see a hung Assembly. Punjab is on the cusp of a transformative change and the election leads to the state can have a significant bearing on the path of nationwide politics.
Q. Despite consecutive Lok Sabha election defeats and a string of losses in Assembly elections, the Congress by no means held any severe introspection or soul-searching. There was no radical course correction or churning.
A. The reply to your very persistent query is apparent. Nobody wants to find the explanations for the defeat. Everybody is aware of the explanation. The fact-finding and inquiry committees are constituted solely to postpone dialogue, to not discover a resolution. Because the causes are identified.
Q. What are the causes?
A. Utter lack of inspirational management and emotional join with the folks. It is for the get together to introspect reasonably than discovering fault with people who find themselves leaving the get together. Why are loyal leaders leaving the get together? The get together ought to discover out the explanation reasonably than discovering fault with those that are compelled by circumstances to go away the get together.
“At the end of the day, when choices have to be made between competing loyalties, the foremost loyalty must be towards one’s own sense of right and to one’s dignity.” File/Express Photo by Renuka Puri
Q. Are you becoming a member of some other political get together?
A. For the second, I’ve not even given it a thought. What occurs sooner or later is anybody’s guess. But I do need to state that if and after I be a part of some other get together it could be the get together which supplies me probably the most consolation, freedom of expression and respect. I don’t contemplate any political get together a pariah and it’s unfair to single out any particular person for all of the ills within the nation. All events have some very ready folks and never so ready.
Q. Some of the regional events at the moment are competing with the Congress for the management area of the Opposition. They consider the Congress just isn’t able to steer the opposition events or a coalition. Do you see a gaggle of regional events forming a entrance with the Congress not on the helm?
A. Politics is a operate of the contextual actuality of the time when selections are required to be made. In case the Opposition which is splintered into numerous events at this level of time needs to get its act collectively to supply a substitute for the folks… the leaders of Opposition must shed their vanities and are available collectively underneath a standard banner. Who will lead this train will clearly be a pacesetter within the Opposition area commanding the loyalty of the most important variety of MPs. But the unification of the opposition has to occur earlier than 2024. The numbers will come later. If Mamata Banerjee succeeds in getting 40 or 45 MPs elected and the Congress additionally has solely 40 MPs and all the opposite events vote for Mamata… clearly she’s going to grow to be the chief. You cannot say that except the Congress is given the management of the UPA… we is not going to be the main focus of that. The different events will then say do not be. Just because the SP and RLD have mentioned that they’ll haven’t any truck with the Congress… the opposite events will even say no truck with you. Because these leaders a minimum of have their states. The Congress is now in energy in solely three states… the Congress goes to be lowered to a celebration of three states. It is just barely higher than a regional get together. If the AAP wins Punjab, the AAP and Congress will come at a par.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
