Hours after Congress veteran and former minister Gulabrao Nabi Azad’s resignation, the former union minister and one of the G23 members Prithviraj Chavan in an exclusive interview with Sanjay Jog spoke on the present state of the party and the way ahead
Q; What is your comment on Azad’s resignation?
A: Azad’s resignation is quite unfortunate as he has been a close colleague, worked together. His step had saddened everybody.
We wrote a letter to Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and later had a series of meetings. We had a meeting in December 2020 with Mrs Gandhi. The primary issue was the Congress needs a full time president to lead the party organisation. The Congress party should hold elections of the president, the parliamentary board and the election committee as per the 135 year old party’s Constitution. These elections were not held for the last 24 years as the party presidents were appointed ones.
This is not what has surprised the party. People are unhappy. Kapil was unhappy but he has now accommodated himself in SP. Azad I don't know what he will do? He was also unhappy. The way Mr Anand Sharma was humiliated when Himachal Pradesh elections were happening.
He was made the Screening Committee chairman but was not informed about its five meetings that took place but he was not even invited. Informing him about those meetings and requesting him to chair the meeting did not happen. Will Mrs Gandhi inquire who took such a decision in HP? If she doesn't then it will be clear that she is not allowed to take the decisions. She wants to take everybody on board but it is not happening
Q: Will you also quit the Congress party?
A: Congress party is required to fight Modi, Modi’s fascist tendencies. Congress can take him on. Congress is the only party which can provide an alternative to Modi. Our idea is to strengthen the Congress party. If nobody is listening to our suggestions then we have to resign to our fate. My objective of writing a letter was that the party was fast losing elections after elections. Things are not right. The consultative decision making process has completely disappeared. There was some kind of animus against the senior leaders which is very sad. Congress always had young, youthful and energetic leaders and also experienced leaders who had network and contacts across parties but that did not happen.
I strongly feel that if you want to defeat Modi who got only 35% votes in 2019 elections and 31% in 2014 elections that means almost 65% to 70% people are voting to defeat Modi but because those votes are split Modi is winning.
Q: Is the Congress in a position to defeat BJP and Modi?
A: The objective for 2024 elections should be to build a broad alliance of opposition parties . Who becomes the PM may be a difficult question that we can leave aside. Take the case of Jaiprakash Narayan, their one point agenda was to defeat Mrs Indira Gandhi. They succeeded. Similarly, I think opposition parties need to come together and avoid division of votes , they put up one candidate against one candidate then Modi can be defeated. But Modi would want to make sure that did not happen. I think Congress Party can play a major role in fighting elections with a single candidate and join hands with like minded opposition parties. Modi can be defeated.
