NEW DELHI: Concerned over divergent views of the leadership projecting the party in a bad light, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has constituted a think tank consisting of senior leaders to firm upstand on issues related to National Register of Citizens (NRC), Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), Article 370 and economy.
The party has faced embarrassing situations in the past few months as many leaders publicly made statements that were against the Congress’ official stand.
The think tank divided in two groups — one on NRC and CAB and other on issues like economy, farm sector and nationalism — will formulate the party’s coherent views on important issues. The first meeting is scheduled for Friday and will be chaired by Sonia.
Former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Ahmed Patel, K C Venugopal, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal, Mallikarjun Kharge and Jyotiraditya Scindia are part of think tank. The NRC group also includes leaders from northeast.
“There have been instances where leaders took a line different from the party. This creates a lot of confusion among cadres and embarrassment for the party. It was felt that senior leaders should provide clear views on important issues,” said a Congress leader.
Divergent views emerged within the Congress on abrogation of Article 370, with many leaders supporting the move, which the party initially opposed. On the BJP’s plan to confer Bharat Ratna to Savarkar, senior leaders such as Abhishek Manu Singhvi spoke about the Hindutva icon’s freedom struggle even as the Congress struck a different line.
The Congress will launch nationwide protests and agitations against ‘anti-people’ economic policies and decisions of the government. The protests scheduled from Nov 5 to Nov 15 at the district level and at state capitals, will culminate in a massive program in Delhi.
Congress dissolves its Gujarat unit
The Congress on Wednesday dissolved its Gujarat unit, but asked state Congress chief Amit Chavda to continue. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has approved the proposal to dissolve the panel of office-bearers and executive committee of the GPCC.
The Pradesh Congress Committee president shall remain unchanged, a party statement added.