New Delhi: Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi Tuesday slammed party leaders and office-bearers for a “lack of clarity and cohesion” on policy issues.
“There are policy issues on which I find a lack of clarity and cohesion even amongst our state-level leaders,” she said, addressing a meeting of Pradesh Congress Committee chiefs, AICC general secretaries and state in-charges at the party headquarters in New Delhi.
“We must fight the diabolical campaign of BJP and RSS ideologically. We must do so with conviction and expose their lies before the people if we are to win this battle,” Gandhi said.
“The AICC releases important and detailed statements almost every day on issues facing the nation. But it is my experience that they do not percolate down to our grassroot cadres at the block and district level. There are policy issues on which I find a lack of clarity and cohesion even amongst our state-level leaders,” she continued.
Sonia Gandhi’s remarks come days after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on 16 October, where she announced that a training programme for party workers will be held starting November. She stressed this again in Tuesday’s meet, emphasising that “training programmes for our workers are an absolute necessity”.
“You must train our workers to take on the unceasing onslaught of malicious disinformation
campaigns at the behest of the BJP/RSS. And you must train our people to fight it while
upholding and projecting the core Congress ideology,” she added.
‘Need to strengthen organisation’
Sonia Gandhi also spoke of the need to “redouble our fight for those who are the victims of this government’s worst excesses: Our farmers and farm labourers, our youth fighting for jobs and opportunities, small and medium scale businesses, our brothers, our sisters with particular focus on the deprived”.
“To make this promise truly meaningful, we must also make our organisation more representative of this cross-section of society,” she said.
At the CWC meeting, Gandhi had stressed on the need for party leaders to ensure discipline and that “there is no need to speak to me through the media”.
“I would like to re-emphasise the paramount need for discipline and unity. What should
matter to each and every one of us is the strengthening of the organisation. This must override personal ambitions. In this lies both collective and individual success,” she said.
(Edited by Neha Mahajan)
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