At AICC meet, Cong tries to reclaim Sardar Patel’s legacy, says ‘BJP never treaded his path’

On the first day of its two-day AICC Session in Ahmedabad, the Congress adopted a special resolution dedicated to “Our Sardar”, underscoring unambiguously the many ways in which the BJP stands in stark contrast to the political ideology and social values Patel continues to represent.

Watch: AICC meeting in Ahmedabad | Day 1 key takeaways

The resolution, adopted unanimously by the extended Congress Working Committee that met at the Sardar Patel Memorial, on Tuesday (April 8), also counters the “cobweb of deceit and deception” woven by the BJP through dissemination of “lies of conflict between Sardar Patel and Pandit (Jawaharlal) Nehru” while asserting that “the forces of animosity and division” seek to undermine the “spirit of camaraderie and bonhomie” that Nehru and Patel shared.

‘BJP emulates the British, not Sardar’

More significantly, the resolution draws on vignettes from Patel’s illustrious life to illustrate how in its politics and policies the Modi-led BJP regime, which repeatedly lays claim to the legacy of India’s first home minister, betrays everything the Sardar stood for.

“Drawing Inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stepped into the thick of the freedom movement in the year 1918 by leading the farmers’ agitation in Kheda, Gujarat against the tax extortion by the British. Thereafter, Sardar Patel launched the ‘Bardoli Satyagrah’ in 1928 against the cruel and illegitimate levy on farmers by the Britishers...” the resolution states.

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“The BJP government of today emulates the cruel British Policies against the farmers – be it bringing an ordinance to whittle down the Right to Fair Compensation Law for acquisition of land, the three Anti-Agriculture ‘Black Laws’ to enslave the farmers, blocking the path of farmers by digging up roads and putting up spikes & wedges, betrayal of the farmers by reneging on the solemn promise of an MSP guarantee law or crushing the farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri under the Jeeps of BJP leaders as a revenge for demanding justice,” the resolution states.

BJP seeks to break India’s united spirit: Resolution

It goes on to say that while Patel and Nehru united over 560 princely states to lay the foundation of the Indian Republic, the BJP “seeks to fragment India’s united spirit by creating artificial splits of regionalism, orchestrating scheming divisions of north v/s south and east v/s west as also wily segregation based on language and culture.”

The resolution also reminds the BJP and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), that it was Patel who “banned the RSS on 4 February, 1948 after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.” “Today, the ideology of violence and communalism is pushing the country into an abyss of hatred, based on the divisions of religious polarisation. Therefore, once again, Congress Party is determined to emulate the resoluteness of ‘Iron man’ Sardar Patel by fighting the frenzy of religious polarisation,” the resolution adds.

Also read: Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Constitution: Congress’s trident to take on BJP

Spotlight on Gandhi, Sardar

That the Congress, often accused by the BJP and other rivals of undermining the legacy of its other stalwarts as a means to establish Nehru’s ‘supremacy’, has chosen to keep the spotlight firmly on Gandhi and Patel at the Ahmedabad AICC Session isn’t without reason. The party conclave, the first in Gujarat since the 1961 Bhavnagar AICC Session, is meant to serve not just the purpose of introspection for the party’s organisational and electoral revival but also to signal to the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the Congress is ready to take on the BJP in their home state when it goes to polls at the end of next year.

A member of the extended CWC told The Federal, “this special resolution is as much about telling the nation that the BJP’s claim on Sardar sahib’s legacy is based on falsehoods as it is about giving the people of Gujarat a real political choice ahead of next year’s assembly polls – do they want Gujarat’s identity to be linked to Modi and Shah or to Bapu and Sardar Sahib”.

Special resolution for Gujarat

Congress’s communications department chief Jairam Ramesh told media persons in Ahmedabad after the conclusion of the extended CWC’s meeting that the AICC Session on April 9 would see the party passing a resolution “specifically for Gujarat” aside from resolutions that address political, social and economic issues facing the country at large. The resolution on Gujarat, sources said, will also reaffirm the party’s commitment to the ideology and principles of Gandhi and Patel while imploring Congress’s leaders and supporters in the state to ensure the party’s victory in the state it has failed to win since 1995.

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The session on April 9 will also be crucial for the Congress as it would spell out the party’s stand on “critical political and socio-economic challenges facing the country under the Modi regime today,” said a leader involved with drafting the resolutions that will be officially released by the party at the conclusion of Ahmedabad conclave. Also anticipated are key decisions on how the party hopes to move forward with its ambitious plans of organisational restructuring and revitalisation.

Organisational revamp

KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary (organisation), told reporters in Ahmedabad that a “massive organisational revamp” is on the cards, while CWC member Sachin Pilot indicated that the party could announce measures to “create more empowered district units” of the Congress.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been spearheading a campaign within the party, much to the unease of a section of senior party leaders, to enhance the role and powers of district Congress chiefs within the organisation. To what extent Rahul succeeds in this endeavour to strengthen the party at the grassroots and break the hegemony of factional leaders remains unclear for now.

Congress leaders across the ranks have been urging the high command to expedite implementation of the many measures that had been outlined in the party’s Nav Sankalp Udaipur Declaration way back in May 2022 in an effort to strengthen the organisation.

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Several of these unfulfilled pledges, including the setting up of separate departments for planning election strategy and garnering regular feedback from the grassroots, were discussed again at the extended CWC meeting on Tuesday, said sources, but with no clarity on a timeline for their implementation. The concluding day of the AICC Session may shed light on some, if not all, of these measures for the Congress’s revival and see the Congress high command make a renewed pitch for Opposition unity within the shaky and seemingly disintegrating INDIA bloc.