Perform or step down: Kharge cracks whip on Congress office bearers

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge cracked the whip on Sunday (December 4) warning Congress general secretaries and in-charges of different states that if they were not capable of performing their roles for any reason they should be prepared to make way for others.

Presiding over the first ever meeting of the Congress Steering Committee, which was constituted last month after his election as Congress president, Kharge said he plans to ensure “organisational accountability from top to bottom”.

Kharge has given strict deadlines for all office bearers who are in charge of various states and asked them to prepare a plan of action for the next 30 to 90 days in all states. He expected these office bearers to be ready with a plan of action for organisational activities, protests, public campaigns in the states under their charge and he would individually meet each one of them to take stock of what they have prepared.

The 85th Congress Plenary Session will be held at Raipur in Chhattisgarh in the second half of February next year when Kharge’s election as party chief will be ratified, the Committee unanimously resolved. Kharge’s election as the Congress president will be ratified at the party’s plenary session where the process of formation of the Congress Working Committee will also be finalised.

Also watch: Mallikarjun Kharge officially takes charge as Congress president

Significantly, without taking names, the Congress president also pointed out that some office bearers felt that the party will ignore their poor performance but he warned that  office bearers who are unable to do justice to their assigned roles will have to be prepared to make way for others. Kharge has also told all office bearers that he will meet them individually over the next 15-30 days by when he expects these office bearers to be ready with a plan of action for organisational activities, protests, public campaigns in the states under their charge.

Further, he asked state in-charges to self-reflect whether they have spent at least 10 days every month in the states under their respective responsibility and personally reached out to party leaders across the hierarchy in these states – state, district, block, booth – to understand their expectations and grievances with the party.

Kharge also asked the in-charges if they had drafted any plan of action in the states under their charge for the next 30 to 90 days to connect with the people, raise issues of public importance through different programs, protest against bad policies of the incumbent state and central government where needed, etc. He also wanted to know if all organisational vacancies in the states had been filled up and whether the in-charges had kept tabs on district, block level party units where office bearers had not been changed in over five years.

Congress steering committee’s statement

The steering committee was formed in place of the working committee, the highest decision-making body of the party, after party chief Mallikarjun Kharge took charge as the new chief in October.

Chhattisgarh has a Congress government under the leadership of Bhupesh Baghel and the state goes to polls towards the end of next year. Congress president Kharge, former party chief Sonia Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Chhattisgarh counterpart Bhupesh Baghel, senior leaders P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Meira Kumar and Ambika Soni were among those who attended the steering committee meeting at the AICC headquarters in Delhi.

In a statement, the Committee said it noted with concern the grave economic, social and political challenges that India continues to face. These challenges intensify every day. Crores of people struggle with soaring prices (increasing at nearly 7 per cent) and record unemployment (8 per cent), even as the government allows the concentration of the nation’s wealth in a few chosen hands.

The deliberate subversion of, and attack on Constitutional institutions continues and the pre-meditated attempt that is underway to de-legitimise the judiciary and orchestrate a confrontation between the executive and the judiciary is particularly alarming, said the statement.

As India faces these challenges, the Prime Minister continues to deny, distract and divide. His inflammatory rhetoric during the recent election campaigns in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh has further polarised the polity and society at a time when serious discussion and debate are needed, said the statement adding that the Indian National Congress has a critical role to play in finding solutions to these challenges.