The Congress on Thursday released its first list of candidates with 125 names, including 50 women, many of whom are known voices of ‘struggle’ and ‘fight’ against injustice in Uttar Pradesh.
Through this, the has formed an "army" that is not usually discussed. There are about two lakh trained soldiers in this "Army" who not only took a pledge to give new strength to the Congress in UP, but they will also play an important role on the electoral front.
This army of the Congress is the "Vichar Sena" on which the Congress was working silently for the past several months. So far, this army is being prepared by organizing 470 training camps in 388 assemblies of UP.
Ever since the party's national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi took over the responsibility of UP, special attention is being paid to strengthening the organization. It was also understood that for the strength of the organization, it is most important that the workers imbibe the core ideology of the Congress because, without it, the organization would be like building a structure only on paper. With this thinking, a campaign to train workers on a large scale was started.
Dr Pankaj Srivastava, Vice-Chairman, Media and Communication Department of Congress, says that the party envisioned a 'Prakshashan Se Parakram' program for this and in July last year, training camps were organized by dividing the entire state into seven regions.
District, city and block presidents were trained in these two-day training camps held from 1 to 8 July 2021. The ideology of Congress was discussed in detail in these training camps. Apart from this, the negative role of other opposition parties in UP, the nuances of effective use of social media and booth management were also discussed.
In the next phase, training camps were organized at all 75 district headquarters, in which the presidents of the Nyaya Panchayats and wards, besides the block committee members, participated. After this, training camps were organized at the assembly level. So far, 399 training camps have been organized in 388 assemblies in which the Presidents of Block Committee, Nyaya Panchayat, Ward and Village Committee have participated. Altogether 470 such camps were organized at the region, district and assembly level in which 1 lakh 90 thousand workers were trained.
During the course of training, not only were the speeches of experts but the entire topic was explained to the workers through videos and powerpoint presentations on a big screen.
There were usually five subjects prescribed in a camp. The first topic was the ideology of the Congress, in which the Congress' anti-colonial struggle and the resolutions taken during the independence struggle, democracy, equality, secularism, etc., were discussed, which are the basics of the Constitution. Along with this, the reality of the sacrifices and propaganda against all the heroes of the freedom struggle like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru etc. were told.
The second topic was "Danger to India and Indianness from RSS and BJP", under which it was told how RSS is busy destroying the pluralistic fabric of the country and the Constitution. The third topic was- "Who spoiled Uttar Pradesh?", Under which the negative role played by Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh was discussed. Apart from this, the workers were also taught the tricks of booth management and better use of social media.
The seriousness of the party taking these camps can also be seen from the fact that Congress National General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi also addressed the training camps online from time to time. This increased the enthusiasm of the workers involved in the training manifold.
Dr Pankaj Srivastava says that Uttar Pradesh has become the laboratory of the poisonous campaign of the RSS, whose target is the constitution of the country. BJP is just a mask for which the election ground alone is not enough to fight. The RSS will also have to be defeated on the front of ideas or else the electoral victory achieved through multiplication and mathematics will be meaningless.
The way the propaganda of RSS has tried to create a storm of hatred on the land of Buddha, Kabir, Raidas contrary to their teachings, Congress has created this Vichar Sena to counter it.
These ideological warriors of Congress will not only play an important responsibility like booth management in elections but will also take a village-village front to protect the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb of UP.
Armed with the ideology of Congress, these soldiers are ready to answer the propaganda of RSS at every crossroads.
