Kapil Sibal stated the Congress desperately wants reforms (File)
New Delhi:
As the Congress processes Jitin Prasada’s change to the BJP, a excessive profile exit that when once more exposes the occasion’s deep disaster, the highlight is on different members of the “G-23” or group of 23 “dissident” leaders who wrote to Sonia Gandhi calling for sweeping reforms. Kapil Sibal, a distinguished member of this membership, emphatically dominated out any such transfer, declaring it could be “Over my dead body”.
The former Union Minister, nonetheless, seized the possibility to ship out a message to his occasion bosses – it’s time for them to pay attention. He additionally disapproved of what he known as “Prasada Ram politics” based mostly on private achieve relatively than ideology.
“I don’t want to comment on what the party leadership has done or not done. We have reached a stage in Indian politics where decisions of this nature are not based on ideology at all. They are based on what I now call Prasada Ram politics. Earlier it was Aaya Ram Gaya Ram. We have seen this happening in West Bengal – suddenly people leave because they think BJP is going to succeed…You want to fight elections not on the basis of your convictions towards an ideology but your conviction that ‘I might get something personally’. The same happened in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra…”
He summed it up as “Crass Prasada politics”.
Jitin Prasada, who was near Rahul Gandhi, stop yesterday after two years of hypothesis, attacking his occasion of 20 years with this parting shot: “I have a three-generation connection with the Congress, so I took this important decision after a lot of deliberation. In the last eight-10 years, I have felt that if there is one party that is truly national, it is BJP. Other parties are regional but this is the national party.”
Mr Prasada was among the many G-23 letter writers, who had requested for adjustments like collective decision-making and “full-time, visible leadership”.
Mr Sibal stated the Congress desperately wants reforms and the occasion management needed to pay attention. At the identical time, it was inexplicable, he stated, that an individual like Jitin Prasada would be part of the BJP.
“Even if issues are addressed, if a person thinks I am not getting anything, he will leave. Jitin may have good reasons to leave. I don’t blame him for leaving the party. I blame him for the reasons he joined the BJP. With what face can he say that now I am embracing an ideology I was opposed to for three decades? And this party that talks about principled politics, with what face do they take Jitin? People are losing faith in this kind of politics.”
Mr Prasada is the second large loss for the Congress after Jyotiraditya Scindia, one other former Rahul Gandhi aide who switched to the BJP final yr together with a gaggle of Madhya Pradesh MLAs, bringing down the Congress authorities within the state.
The Madhya Pradesh defections together with back-to-back election losses spurred Congress veterans like Mr Sibal, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma into capturing off the unprecedented letter that appeared to tackle the Gandhis for the primary time.
Speculation is now swirling round Sachin Pilot, who has been demanding a fairer share within the occasion since his revolt towards Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot final yr.
Mr Pilot was persuaded by Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to finish his riot, on the promise of a course correction. He lately reminded his occasion leaders that nothing had modified since then.
Asked in regards to the Congress’s failure to ship on treatments, Mr Sibal stated: “Issues were not addressed, that is true. They must be addressed as quickly as possible. We will continue to raise those issues. If the party for some reason tells me we don’t need you, I will leave it. I am not in it for myself, but I will never in my life over my dead body join the BJP who I have opposed since my birth as a politician. That’s my issue with Jitin Prasada.”
Pressed on the so-called reforms, he replied: “Don’t ask me, ask whoever has to address them. The Congress must become the grand old party that it was. For that we need reforms. If we haven’t addressed it, we haven’t. We are fighting within the system we have continued to raise issues. All that we want to say is it is time to listen. If the head stops listening, the organization will decline. All that we want is that the Congress party should listen to us.”
