New Delhi: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi has rejected a proposal to call yet-to-be-appointed party trainers ‘preraks’ (motivators) as it sounds similar to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s concept of ‘pracharaks’ (volunteers).
At a meeting of the party’s senior leaders Thursday, Gandhi asked the party’s general secretary, training, Sachin Rao, who suggested the idea just about a fortnight ago, to provide her with a list of alternative options, a senior Congress leader told ThePrint.
The Congress plans to select trainers who would “inspire and inform the masses” about the party and deliver its messages — thereby increasing the party’s grassroot-level connect.
The issue came up in the meeting during which Gandhi met a host of senior leaders to discuss the celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, the party’s upcoming membership drive and the new training programme.
The meeting is the first large gathering of Congress leaders ever since Gandhi took over as the party’s interim chief.
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Leaders suggested different names
When Rao brought up the topic of ‘preraks’ at the meeting, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jhakkar interjected, said the senior leader quoted above who was present at the meeting.
“He wanted to know why call them ‘preraks’,” the leader said. “He mentioned that the party was being criticised on all fronts for copying the BJP.”
Several other leaders in the meeting backed Jhakkar and suggested that the candidates be called something else.
Responding to the interjection, Gandhi immediately conceded to having read reports about the same and said “nothing doing, we can’t use this term” and rejected the proposal of calling the trainers ‘preraks’.
Several senior leaders at the meeting suggested terms like ‘sanyojak’ and ‘organiser’, but no consensus was reached.
The Congress leader quoted above, however, told ThePrint: “Just because you’ve changed the name from ‘pracharak’ to ‘prerak’, doesn’t mean people won’t understand.” He also said: “The concept remains the same. How can we become like the BJP and the RSS? We are a mass-based party, not a cadre based party.”
Rao, who suggested the idea of having ‘preraks’, was handpicked by former Congress president Rahul Gandhi to lead the training unit.
“This is Rao’s way of trying to stay relevant,” a second Congress leader told ThePrint. “He has to do something after all.”
Yet another senior leader present at the meeting told ThePrint that AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik suggested that they be called coordinators, instead.
“We’ve had a training programme since Rajiv Gandhi’s time, they have always been called coordinators, (Mukul) Wasnik recommended that we stick to the same,” said the leader, who did not wish to be named.
Congress training unit
According to a 3 September party note accessed by ThePrint, the Congress was planning a “complete organisational overhaul to facilitate training programmes” and help identify and select ‘preraks’ to spread the party’s message among people.
The Congress will have three ‘preraks’ in each division comprising 4-5 districts in each state. Like an RSS or BJP ‘pracharak’, who organises shakas, ‘preraks’ will conduct organisational dialogues. Rao and state Congress chiefs will jointly shortlist the trainers for the party’s mass-contact programme.
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