Bengaluru: Veteran Congress leader Veerappa Moily has called on party president Rahul Gandhi not to resign, adding that if Gandhi does wish to go, he should first quell dissent in the party.
“Whatever his reason be, be it personal or emotional, if at all he wants to step down, he should first put the Congress house in order,” Moily told ThePrint.
Moily was referring to the internal strife within the Congress in states such as Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh and the desertions in Maharashtra and Telangana following the Lok Sabha poll rout. It is here that Gandhi needs to take a tough stand and take disciplinary action against those who have broken rules, Moily said.
The veteran Congress leader from Karnataka urged the party president to take a leaf out of his grandmother Indira Gandhi’s book in dealing with dissent. Moily was then an MLA from Karkala, one of the assembly segments of that constituency.
“Deveraj Urs was heading the Congress party in Karnataka but he deserted it and wrote a letter, which was in bad taste, to Indiraji,” Moily said. “He wanted to collude with the opposition and remove Indira Gandhi. I went to Indiraji at midnight and insisted that she take action against the dissidents as it was necessary to send a strong message to the cadre. After much coaxing she did. I see the same trait in Rahul Gandhi and he should take a tough like her stand and act now.”
Following the Congress defeat in the Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi had offered to quit as the party president but the Congress Working Committee (CWC) unanimously rejected his offer. Congress sources, however, say that Rahul is still quite determined to step down.
Stepping down now would undo efforts of five years
Moily further said that Gandhi stepping down now would be “anti-climatic” to the efforts he has put in for the party.
“For the last five years he has worked on building the party. The party cannot afford to lose another five years to be built by another person,” Moily said. “Rahul Gandhi has brought in a momentum and has become a big challenger to Narendra Modi. He should ensure that he maintains that momentum.”
He added that those throwing their hats in the ring to succeed Gandhi were being opportunistic.
Moily, who lost his Chikkaballapur seat to BJP’s Bache Gowda, believes that the Congress can resurrect itself despite its poor election showing. For that, he said, the Congress would have its state units.
“This is the only party that has stood the test of time,” he said. “Each time it has been on the verge of disintegrating, it has revived itself like a phoenix.”
Also read:No end to Rahul resignation saga, old Congress traits crop up as workers hold hunger strike
Why are we surprised?
This is old story. His grandmother tried exactly the same tactics. All it was meant for was to get the numbers four downwards (Congress does not believe in a number two or a number three in the party) to stand up and be counted as a loyal and servile employee of the ‘family’
It is the same across the borders on both our East and our West.
Bhutto, Bhutto, Zardari, Zardari on the West.
Sheikh, Zia, Sheikh, Zia.
Bangladesh just is marginally better with a duopoly. For us and Pakistan it is just one family – the name changes because in-laws and out-laws keep separate names.
This resignation drama is old story. Things never change.
BJP has done a great service to this nation by providing us a party where no one owns the party. There are no sons, daughters, son-in-laws and daughters-in_laws standing in the endless queue of the monopoly family.
Yes a country must have at least two parties contending to form the government but Congress ha long seized to be that party.
It is sad for the nation that on the two occasions that this behemoth split – the power that resides in the family won and the opposition disappeared.
You think India needs another party – form it. But please – no more of this same old – same old.
If Rahul now withdraws his resignation he will have no credibility remaining. It is time that the party found a non-Gandhi to lead the party. The country needs a strong opposition. As of now only the Congress can do that. But it really needs to put its house in order.
1. Assuming for a moment that Congress President withdraws his resignation, question that needs to be answered is this: would that dramatically improve prospects of the Congress party in coming years? Answer to this question is NO. 2. It is absolutely clear that both senior Congressmen and Rahul Gandhi have not realized that Rahul Gandhi’s criticism of PM Narendra Modi as “chor” may have brought headlines in newspapers but it has imposed heavy cost on his party as the citizen-voters’ have responded strongly to his insensitive criticism of PM Narendra Modi. It is immature on part of Rahul Gandhi that to repeat the same mistake in his recent speeches in Kerala. 3. Fact is that there are now fewer and fewer takers for Congress party with its so-called secular agenda and vague economic agenda. It is obvious that Congress party’s promise of minimum income (of Rs 72,000/-, per year) was an empty promise, made without any serious calculation of resources required to pay that kind of money to crores of poor citizens. Citizen-voters have rejected all such empty promises. 3. I believe that the Congress party has a future as a centrist (to be precise, left of the centre) political party and the citizen-voters too wish that the Congress should reorganize to become such a centrist party, provided the seniors in the party work to rebuild organization. More importantly, they should reconsider party’s secular agenda which depends too much on minority voters for survival- this I suppose is an important lesson of 2019 LS election results. 4. Would today’s Congress leadership be able to make a break from the past and grow? Let us hope that senior Congress leaders do some a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the organization and take remedial steps to move out their party from the current pathetic situation.
call it the height of sychophancy
Joke of the Year….
For the last five years he has worked on building the party. The party cannot afford to lose another five years to be built by another person,” Moily said. “Rahul Gandhi has brought in a momentum and has become a big challenger to Narendra Modi. He should ensure that he maintains that momentum.”
Veerappa Moily has spoken candidly. Rahul Gandhi should pay heed to the views of the senior Congress leader
Veerappa Moily has spoken candidly .Rahul should pay heed to the views of the senior Congress leader
Difficult to talk of Mrs Gandhi and her successors in the same breath. One does not know if Michelangelo married, had children, but cannot visualise any of them painting the Sistine Chapel. Two of the non Gandhi family names reportedly under consideration for the post of Congress President are Mallikarjun Kharge and Prithviraj Chavan. Recall the number of seats the party won from Karnataka and Maharashtra in the general election.