Hindustan Times
Salman gives wake up call
Union Minister Salman Khurshid’s candid observations about his own party and its leader Rahul Gandhi should serve as a wake up call for the Congress and its top leadership. In fact what he has said has gone down very well with the rank and file of the party. He seems to have had the courage to speak out the truth even if his detractors may try and hold it against him to settle their own scores. There is a general belief that the Congress leadership needs to do something that will bring back energy in the party and boost the morale of the demoralized workers following a string of defeats in one election after the other.
There are many who may argue that a senior person like Salman should not have voiced his views so openly. His comments on the party’s functioning should have been confined to an appropriate party forum. By saying things upfront, he may have encouraged many others to make similar observations. But most people who have been following the functioning of the Congress closely are aware that the opportunities to discuss party matters are very few and when they do come there is always some diversionary agenda or the other.
Salman may have accused the media of twisting his words but it is his own party, which should take his views in the positive sense and initiate measures to make things look better. Salman maybe the only one who has spoken out but there are many others within the Congress who agree with him privately. However, his detractors will surely try to give an exaggerated and a negative picture about his Indian Express interaction to ensure that he is pushed to the periphery. But the High Command should see things in proper perspective and address the problem rather than shooting down the person who has tried to put his finger on the pulse.
Sometime ago, another Cabinet minister had also said that the government was in Coma and the party was in the ICU. He too had seemingly spoken the truth but somehow those comments did not attract as much attention as Salman’s frank remarks. One should try and understand why Salman chose to air his opinion publicly. One reason could be that the party working committee has not been meeting as often as it should. In fact, the last working committee meeting in June took place after nearly one year. The meeting was essentially to authorise the Congress president to take an appropriate decision regarding the Presidential polls. Also being a well wisher of the Gandhis with whom he has had very old ties, Salman has made a bold attempt to send a message to the party’s young leadership that it has to do more and what it was doing at present was certainly not enough. Only some kind of pro-active action would instill hope in workers and reenergize the party whose political fortunes have witnessed many downward swings of late.
The party must take cognizance of the wide belief, which has been echoed by Salman in order to set its own house in order. It maybe very easy to take action against the minister but in politics where sycophancy rules, there will be very few people who will have the courage to speak the truth again.
