New Delhi: The Congress party will be on a war footing over the next three months to implement organisational changes listed in the Udaipur Declaration adopted at its mega ‘Chintan Shivir’ last week, said party leader Praveen Chakravarty.
In an interview with ThePrint, Chakravarty – chairman of the Indian National Congress’s Data Analytics team – said that the party is “very serious about disrupting the organisational structure”, while also explaining the role of the newly-formed Public Insight Committee.
He added that a lot of these changes will manifest in the next three months which is when the party has said it will fill all its organisational vacancies. “By September, you will see a dramatically revitalised, energised Congress party. It is high time we get on a war footing,” Chakravarty said.
Sharing important takeaways from the ‘Chintan Shivir’, Chakravarty said that the three-day convention was about introspection, diagnosis and formulating a prescription for how the Congress can course-correct.
“All leaders, including Mr. Gandhi (Rahul), were unanimous in the diagnosis of the problem, which is that we may have lost some of our connection with the people. The treatment for that was to go back to people, listen to people and fight for people’s issues,” Praveen Chakravarty told ThePrint.
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Role of Public Insight Committee
The Congress leader also explained the role of the new Public Insight Committee, which is a new arm under his department tasked with reaching out to the people and recording their inputs.
“We will listen to people for decisions that we make on a daily basis. Whether it is articulating the party’s stand, making decisions on leaders or even organisational changes. We will get inputs from the people for all of this,” said Chakravarty.
“The idea behind this was to listen to people on a daily basis, not just during election time. I joke saying that this is a peace-time activity, not a war-time activity. We have the tools in today’s India to do it in a scientific manner and a timely manner,” he added.
Chakravarty also spoke at length about changes in the party’s communication machinery, which Rahul Gandhi said needed to be “completely reformed”.
The Udaipur Declaration called for the Congress’s communication to be informed by subject matter experts and integrating departments like media, social media, data and research under the communication department.
“We must communicate ideas, backed by research that communicates with today’s India. Remember, 65 per cent of every assembly constituency in today’s India is less than the age of 45. We are a young country and we are not able to connect to today’s India,” said Chakravarty.
He added that apart from employing better communication techniques, the Congress needs fresh energy and fresh ideas, which is where the ‘50-under-50’ formula adopted in the Udaipur Declaration comes into play.
The Declaration states that half of the members of all committees within the party, from the block-level to the leadership level, must be below the age of 50.
In addition to changes in the organisational structure, the Congress has also announced its plans to launch a five-month-long ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ on 2 October. This 3,500-kilometre march beginning from Kanyakumari will conclude in Kashmir.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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