New Delhi : Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has stressed the primacy of party president Sonia Gandhi’s leadership in the political domain. ‘‘She is the leader, she will remain the leader,” he said while adding that there is no contradiction between this position and the demand that her son Rahul should become the party president.
He made these observations while addressing a media briefing at the party headquarters. The outspoken leader who has been often snubbed by official spokespersons for expressing his ‘personal’ views on crucial issues made this observation even as the party’s officiating chairperson for the media department Randeep Singh Surjewala was seated on the podium.
This assertion regarding Sonia Gandhi’s primacy came in the backdrop of two more developments. The first being the formal and definitive announcement by Singh on behalf of the party that Rahul Gandhi, who has been away since February last week, would be definitely addressing the April 19 farmers rally in the capital. “I can say that he will be there on April 19th, at 10.30 am,” he told questioners at the briefing.
The second was a statement by the two-term MP Sandeep Dikshit making a case that this was no time for the party to change its leader. ‘‘We need the best general under these circumstances,” he said. This ‘Sonia is the best general’ theme is some kind of a euphemism for those opposing Rahul’s elevation to the party president’s post, and the same sentiment has been expressed by former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh who has said in the past that ‘‘she should continue, and her son should assist her while learning in the process.’’
But Singh saw neither con tradiction nor a discordant note in Dikshit’s comment. ‘‘Soniaji is the leader for all of us, including Rahul Gandhi,” he said. Not just that he cited past precedents from the party’s history to establish an argument that a leader need not be party president.” During the days of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira, Rajiviji and even Narasimha Raoji, there were times when other people were party presidents. But they were always the leaders,” said Singh.
But in the same breath he argued that a generational change is the law of nature. “Can we go against the laws of nature? There is no tussle between the old and the new, and if the media is happy kite flying, who are we to object,” he asserted.
The Congress general secretary who was the first among those publicly seeking the party president’s role for Rahul Gandhi however did not specify any time frame for his elevation to the post. “This is for the Congress president to decide. As per the party’s constitution, the decision to appoint the president can be taken by the working committee, that is the highest policy making body, but then this has to be ratified by the All India Congress Committee,” he added.
But with the ‘groom” Rahul not available for the bulk of the month of April, the reported plan of installing him as the party president, within this month itself, seems to have been automatically deferred, and the possible new schedule would be available only after he makes a public appearance.
While announcing Rahul’s appearance at the farmers rally, Singh also lashed out at the NDA government’s anti-farmer and anti-farm labour policies. ‘‘One does not know what was the reason for the unseemly haste in bringing the ordinance to replace a Land Acqusition Bill that was unanimously passed by Parliament after more than two and half years of consultations with all the parties,” he said while asserting that the party would oppose the ordinance tooth and nail.
He cited several other steps taken by the NDA government to illustrate its anti-poor character. ‘‘The worst of it is that wages for the rural poor under the MGNREGS have not been paid for the last six months,” he charged.
