New Delhi, May 10 (FN Agency) Stating that there are no “magic wands”, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Monday urged party members to give out a message of unity from the Chintan Shivir set to be held in Rajasthan’s Udaipur, and asked members to extend ‘full cooperation’. “I request for your full cooperation in ensuring that the single overriding message of unity, cohesion, determination and commitment to our party’s accelerated revival goes forth loud and clear from Udaipur,” the Congress President said on her inaugural address at the CWC meet, which was held to discuss various proposal for the upcoming Chintan Shivir Or brainstorming camp of the party – the ‘Nav Sankalp Shivir’. The meet, which will be attended by Congress leaders, will be held in Udaipur from May 13-15. Party leaders informed 422 party leaders will attend the Chintan Shivir, of which 50 percent members are below the age of 50, and almost half of them are below 35 years of age. 21 percent delegates are women.
The Congress President said a vast majority of those invited hold or have held one position or the other in the Congress or in the Union government and efforts have been made to ensure balanced representation—balance from every angle. The Congress President said there is no “magic wand”, and asked members to pay back their “debt” to the party. “There are no magic wands. It is only selfless work, discipline and a sense of consistent collective purpose that will enable us to demonstrate our tenacity and resilience,” Sonia Gandhi said. “The party has been good to each and every one of us. Now is the time to repay that debt in full measure,” she said. The Congress President, who in the last CWC had declared she was a ‘full time and hands on’ President of the party, said, “self-criticism is of course needed in our party forums. But this should not be done in a manner that self-confidence and morale is eroded and an atmosphere of gloom and doom becomes all-pervasive”. She said the chintan shivir should not become a “ritual” that has to be gone through.
“I am determined that it should herald a restructured organization to meet the many ideological, electoral and managerial challenges we confront,” she said. Apprising about the meeting, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said heads of the six committees made their presentations. The panel on political issues is led by Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, the group on social justice and empowerment has Salman Khurshid as convener, the group on economy is led by P Chidambaram. For suggestions on organisational issues, the group is led by Mukul Wasnik, while Bhupinder Singh Hooda is leading the committee on farmers and agriculture, and Amarinder Singh Warring is the convenor for the group on youth and empowerment. “The goal of the ‘Chintan Shivir’ is to make a action plan on how to address the issues that are concerning the public besides strengthening the party,” Surjewala said.
Party leader Jairam Ramesh meanwhile said, “We are going to Udaipur not to draft a manifesto. We are going to Udaipur to prepare an action plan to strengthen, revive the Congress party before 2024 general elections, besides to deal with political, economic, social and other challenges the country is facing”. Talking about the meeting, Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil said, “People of the country are facing various problems and as a responsible Opposition party, Congress had decided to hold a ‘Chintan Shivir’ to discuss on those issues. We will also prepare a roadmap for 2014.” ”After the deliberations over these issues, we will adopt a resolution in which we will have an action plan to deal with them,” he said. Among others, senior Congress leaders- Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ambika Soni and Anad Sharma also attended the meeting.