Journalist Pankaj Sharma shared an emotional note to Rahul Gandhi on Twitter sharing a stirring speech of Rahul Gandhi earlier.
As Rahul Gandhi stepped down from presidentship in Congress, there is a lot of anxiety because the Gandhis are the perceived strength of Congress, and while he seems reluctant to take on the position of the president, there are many loops building in the party.
Journalist Pankaj Sharma shares a stirring speech made by Rahul Gandhi:
आदरणीय @RahulGandhi जी,
कल आपको कांग्रेस.अध्यक्ष पद छोड़े दो साल पूरे हो गए हैं. सो, अपने दिलो&दिमाग़ में पछुआ बयार की तरह तैर रहे महज़ आठ साल पांच महीने पुराने दृश्यों का आप से ज़िक्र किए बिना मुझ से रहा नहीं जा रहा। उस दिन 2013 की सर्दियों का रविवार था। तारीख़ थी 20 जनवरी।— Pankaj Sharma पंकज शर्मा (@Pankaj___Sharma) July 3, 2021
Respected
@RahulGandhi
Yesterday, you have completed two years from leaving the post of Congress President. So, without mentioning to you the scenes of just eight years five months old, floating in your heart and mind like a gusty wind, I can’t stay away from you. That day was a Sunday in the winter of 2013. The date was January 20.
I was present at the Congress session in Jaipur, as the party’s national secretary, on the platform on which AAP took over as the vice-president. Your words in your speech immediately after that still haunt my mind. you said that:
“…we don’t focus on leadership development. After 5-6 years from today, such a thing should happen that if we need a Chief Minister in any state, then as earlier there used to be photos of Congress party, there used to be giants like Nehru ji, Patel, Azad, .. …
Any one of them could have become the Prime Minister of the country. We have to do this. We have to prepare 40-50 leaders who can run the country. Not only the state, but the country can be run. 40-50 leaders have to be prepared like this from every state. We should have 5-6-7-10 leaders who can become chief ministers. …..
And this thing should be in every district, this thing should be done in every block. And if someone asks us what the Congress party does? Congress party prepares leaders for the future of India. …..
The Congress party produces secular leaders, leaders who understand India deeply, who are connected to the people, such leaders. It prepares such leaders, whom all the people of India see and say, brother, we want to stand behind them.”
What Should Congress Do Going Forward?
Rahul Gandhi is right with his vision to produce secular leaders who understand India. There are many leaders working on the ground, but the ground cadre is thinning out. While Congress still holds ground in Rajasthan, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra (as part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi – MVA), Jharkhand (as part of the Mahagathbandhan – MGB), Tamil Nadu ( as part of the Secular Progressive Alliance – SPA), a new strategy has to start or it will be detrimental for the party.
Clearly, going forward, Congress has to strategize the party fresh and define positions for the leaders who are already pouring out their services. Congress has to start anew by formally presenting the president of the Congress party.
Rahul Gandhi should take up the presidentship again and draws in his cadre with new elections or if he is really adamant not to become president, then a president has to be elected and defined to build up the morale, confidence, and direction of the party.
Without a defined chalked-out president, infighting will not stop, nor can new leaders move in and develop to higher grounds. The party will be unable to build up its cadre, there will be many blocks making the party framework fragile. In the face of all that is happening in the nation, procrastination is the mother of destruction giving more time for negative elements to garner their strength. While Twitter is a powerful tool, without workers on the field, Congress will just be blowing hot air without the harvest from the fields.
Today, the people have to rise and think of nation even beyond party because India is in dire straits with a fear in people’s hearts of the Constitution being muffled in the hands of an authoritarian government that does as it pleases without listening to the voice of the people. We are living in the most frightening era of modern India seeing things that were never seen before and the Congress has to act faster according to the urgency of the hour.