A week after 23 leaders of the Congress wrote a letter demanding wide-ranging organisational reforms, the 'dissent' issue is continuing to cause ripples in the grand old party.
The letter, addressed to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi, brought out internal divisions at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee on August 24.
One of the leaders associated with the letter, former Union minister and lawyer Kapil Sibal, has now alleged none of the "concerns" the 23 leaders had raised had been addressed at the CWC meeting. The Indian Express on Sunday published a report with comments from Sibal. Sibal told The Indian Express, "... if you don’t talk of substance [of letter] and talk of either timing or the fact that we wrote, that itself is an example of distancing yourself from the cause. And that has what has happened. Not one request of ours, concern of ours, reflected in the letter has been sought to be addressed in that meeting. Not one. Yet we are called dissenters."
Sibal alleged that during the CWC meeting, the letter writers were called "traitors". “in the course of the (CWC) meeting we were called traitors and nobody sitting in that meeting including the leadership told them that this is not the kind of language [used in the party]. Our letter… every part of it was expressed in very civilised language," Sibal told The Indian Express.
Reiterating the letter writers' demand, Sibal emphasised, "What do we want? We want adherence to our (party’s) constitution. Who can object to that?" The letter had sought internal elections in the Congress, which has been without a full-time party chief since Rahul Gandhi stepped down in May last year.
Sibal claimed that the letter writers' demands had national support. "I think that people across the country, whether they belong to the Congress party or not… they all express appreciation for our concerns. So, obviously, there is a public sentiment, which appreciates our desire to rejuvenate the Congress," Sibal told The Indian Express.
There was drama during the CWC meeting on August 24 as Sibal tweeted that Rahul Gandhi accused the letter writers of colluding with the BJP. He later deleted the tweet, stating Rahul had clarified he had said no such thing.
Another prominent Congress leader who signed the letter, Ghulam Nabi Azad, has also not shied away from continuing with provocative comments after the CWC meeting.
Azad was quoted by news agency ANI as calling for wide-ranging organisational elections, arguing that an "appointed" Congress leader will not have support of even 1 per cent of the party.
Without elections, Azad warned, "Congress will continue to sit in the opposition for the next 50 years."
