Sonia loyalist Kapil Sibal says party is in a mess

Sonia loyalist Kapil Sibal says party is in a mess
SANJIV SINHA

NEW DELHI, MARCH 29: The Congress party's most public face and strident spokesman during the last Lok Sabha elections, lawyer-turned politician Kapil Sibal, has now called for a serious debate on the dwindling fortunes of the party.

Speaking to The Indian Express on Tuesday, Sibal who is also a Rajya Sabha member and considered a diehard Sonia loyalist, said that ``there is a definite hiatus between the aspirations of the people and the objectives being followed by the party.''

``The time has come for every right-thinking Congressman to sit up and ask himself the reason for the present situation in the party,'' he said. Sibal's candid observations come in the wake of similar concerns raised by other Congress leaders among them former Union Minister C K Jaffer Sharief, former Gujarat Chief Minister Chhabildas Mehta and also many like Meira Kumar and Matang Singh who are no longer in the party.

While Sibal refrained from laying the blame for the present state on any single individual, his criticism is going to only intensify the pressure on Sonia Gandhi's leadership, which has come under increasing criticism from various quarters.

Sibal, who was handpicked for the high-profile job of party spokesperson before last year's Lok Sabha elections but chose to keep away after the party's debacle, said that the ``decision-making process in the party had to be improved at all levels.''

``The need of the hour is a deep introspection as to where the party is going...it has to be a free and frank discussion and has to be carried out all levels,'' he said.

The senior lawyer asserted that it was more than clear that the party was not doing enough. ``There is a lot of confusion within the party over basic issues such as its approach to the liberalisation policies, its stand on the nuclear issue...the party cannot afford to send contradictory signals on these crucial issues and must spell out its agenda clearly.''

Sibal was also critical of the recent RS nominations, albeit indirectly. ``The upper house is a permanent one where the level of debate is higher than the LS. While nominating members, the party must follow certain standards such as those with outstanding ability or tremendous mass base.''

He was of the view that the Congress was no longer espousing the concerns of the common people and this had gradually resulted in its marginalisation from the traditional vote-banks. ``The party is no more the umbrella organisation encompassing all sections of society...the SC/STs and backward castes have been switched over to regional parties, the middle class stands alienated and the upper class has crossed over to the BJP,'' he said.

``The biggest examples of the party's alienation are Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the two largest states, where there is virtually no organisation worth the name...all of us must rise to the occasion and make whatever changes necessary to ensure the return of our support base.''

He, however, felt that it would be unfair to pinpoint the blame on a single individual. ``We should not confuse the issue by personalising it...every Congressman must share the blame and the responsibility of bringing the party out of the doldrums.''

In a veiled attack on the so-called coterie surrounding party chief Sonia Gandhi, he said that while every leader was entitled to his set of advisors, it was also essential that the decision-making process at all levels be made more democratic and accountable. In this context, he asserted that some of the decisions taken by the party and which later went wrong were due to unsound advice.