M A I N   N E W S

No room for factionalism, Sonia tells party CMs
Anita Katyal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 7
Congress President Sonia Gandhi today sent out a strong message to party chief ministers: stamp out factionalism, present periodic progress reports to the people, encourage the involvement of the party cadres in implementing and monitoring official programmes and step up political mobilisation to propagate the government’s accomplishments.

Addressing the sixth conclave of Congress chief ministers here, Mrs Gandhi asked them to rise above personal ambition and factionalism. “It is imperative for all of us to rise above factionalism, to subjugate our personal ambitions in the larger cause of the party,” she said.

What was seen as a clear reference to the ongoing factional battles in Delhi and Maharashtra, the party President counselled the chief ministers to be “sensitive to different perspectives within the party and give everyone a chance to be heard.”

The upcoming Assembly elections in key states like Kerala, Assam, West Bengal and Pondicherry and the party’s waning popularity in several states were obviously on her radar screen when Mrs Gandhi underlined the need for delivering on poll promises and ensuring that leaders were held accountable. It is in this context that she asked the chief ministers to share their progress reports with the people every two months.

It was for the same reason that she warned against neglecting the party cadres and repeatedly referred to the importance of greater association between the government and the party organisation so that workers felt involved in the implementation and monitoring of official policies and schemes.

“Our party workers must be made aware of and informed fully at every stage on all we are doing. Otherwise, how will they propagate our accomplishments effectively,” she said.The key to this was political mobilisation which, Mrs Gandhi maintained, was essential for the success of development programmes and to sustain popular support for the party. 

Outlining various social sector schemes initiated by the UPA government, especially the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Right to Information Act, Mrs Gandhi said the party cadres had to be galvanised in a big way to explain these pieces of legislation to the people.

Recognising that the Congress was in a coalition at the Centre and in a number of states, Mrs Gandhi pointed to the need for carving out a special niche for the party so that the people recognised its unique contribution. The reference here was obviously to the tendency of the Left parties to walk away with credit for the government’s progressive policies while the Congress was left to defend the more unpopular measures. Even in this case, she said, the party organisation should be involved in letting people know that the programmes and policies were borne out of the Congress party’s political vision and ideology. 

In a clear message to the Left parties, which had been critical of the UPA government’s economic policies, Mrs Gandhi echoed them when she reiterated that economic reforms must have a human face.

Mrs Gandhi also had a number of other suggestions for the chief ministers. She advised them to break the nexus among contractors, middlemen, bureaucrats and politicians, have greater transparency in procurement, improve public utilities like the supply of water and power, introduce innovations in delivery systems and simplify government rules so as to benefit the people. The business-as-usual attitude was ‘‘simply unacceptable,” she emphasised.