New Delhi: In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Congress National Spokesperson, Sanjay Jha hits out at his party for it's 'high command culture' and even suggested a few measures to make a change in the grand old political party, for which he said, "has become old and fogy."
The excerpts are:
Q. Where Congress is lacking behind in its strategy?
Ans: Congress is now helping the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) by not getting its act together. Our ideologies are different. Congress is secular, liberal, democratic, progressive and tolerant. We are doing a great disservice to this political institution by allowing it to crumble and become weak we haven't had a party president since Rahul Gandhi resigned and it's more than a year. Now we have to move on. It doesn't make sense that there is no one as a prominent face of the party for next Lok Sabha elections. It should have already been there by now. If we don't do this, we are making BJP's job extremely easy.
Q. Do you agree that there are two groups having two different opinions within the party in terms of choosing their President?
Ans: There will always be two sides to any discussion. There can even be a third side. But the larger point is, Congress party today faces an existential crisis. Two Lok Sabha defeats, they don't even get 100 seats in aggregate. Several states we've lost and this shows clearly that we have a problem.
The second point is, we have been saying that BJP is anti-democratic. But somebody needs to ask, within Congress party, when did you last hold elections? It is time for the Congress party to look for a new leader who is going to give it a completely different approach and attitude to not just to the internal lining of the party but how to come back to the opposition and how to capture the public imagination.
Q. Rajya Sabha polls are coming up, but it has been hit by resignations. Gujarat MLAs are leaving the party. Where Congress is at fault in preparing a strategy for the upcoming elections?
Ans: Go back to 2017, when Rahul Gandhi campaigned in Gujarat and it became the biggest talking point that we gave a run for the money to BJP. But look at us what we are today. The same MLAs who were a part of the successful seats we had, are now deserting us and going to BJP. This is the problem with Congress. Why can't we retain our people? It means that Congress' ideology is not being bought by the very people who won on a ticket.
It is easy to blame BJP for using money, CBI or IT but why should they succeed? Why can't a congressman be in Congress party despite being in pressure or allurement? Congress party's inability is allowing all it's people to go.
Q. Any suggestions for Congress party to make a change in itself?
Ans: Firstly, there should be elections in the Congress Working Committee. This nomination culture needs to go. Otherwise, it would become a big cocoon that runs the entire party, that's not healthy. We need to bring internal democracy in the party.
We should have five regional Vice Presidents. It's a big country to run and there should be more leaders with powers to take care of the regions.
There should be a shadow cabinet, at least in the key portfolios like defence, home, finance, health, and foreign policies. These are the places where you need your best people to be out there to keep the Government in check.
The party should go on more transparent fundraising, instead of just depending on corporates or having electoral bonds. We should make it open to anybody.
We need to empower our state leaders. We need to change our AICC structure, it has become very old and foggy. We need to become more fluid, flexible and malleable to change.
Q.Does that means there is a lack of internal democracy in the party?
Ans: Internal democracy is that anybody in the party should be able to reach out to anybody in the party with an idea and suggestions to make the party stronger.
These cannot be ad-hoc or opportunistic. It means regular ongoing transparent access to people in the party who has been given the power to run the party. The need is to create an institutionalized mechanism where there is a dialogue between people.
For example, after the defeat in 2019, it was being decided that no spokesperson will go to TV debates. The spokespersons were not even consulted before this decision. What democracy is this? I found this decision very absurd, atrocious and ridiculous. But in the last 6 years, there has not been a single effort or a real congregation of people who have sat and said why are we losing, where are we going wrong? The entire channel of communication is being restricted to a few office-bearers here and there.
