By PTI
NEW DELHI: Describing the celebration’s Chintan Shivir as an train in reform and revival, Congress chief Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday stated “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” and it stays to be seen whether or not the “process” will find yourself the place many leaders wished it to.
Tharoor, among the many group of 23 leaders who had written to celebration chief Sonia Gandhi in 2020 in search of large-scale reforms, stated “reformists” on the finish of the day wished a extra consultative course of the place all kinds of voices could be heard and brought under consideration earlier than choices had been made.
“If such discussions occur in the proposed advisory council, the purpose would have been served,” he informed PTI in an interview.
But that is still to be seen, Tharoor added.
“Our proposals like the revival of the parliamentary board and the idea of elections to the Working Committee were both intended to bring fresh voices to the table. The final decisions after such discussions would always rest with the leadership,” he asserted.
Following the May 13-15 brainstorming session in Udaipur, Sonia Gandhi introduced an advisory group drawn from the Congress Working Committee.
She stated it was “not a collective decision-making body” and would assist her get the good thing about senior colleagues’ huge expertise.
Referring to the deliberations on the Shivir, Tharoor stated, “Serious discussions were held in a constructive spirit amid much talk of change in the air. But whether it will end up where many of us had wanted remains to be seen.”
“Let’s say a process has begun that still needs to unfold over the next few months. The cliché holds true: the proof of the pudding is in the eating,” the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram added.
He stated the problem of Rahul Gandhi as celebration president was not mentioned to one of the best of his data.
While a few of his colleagues definitely made such solutions, they weren’t a part of a structured dialogue, the Congress chief stated.
“Still, there remains no doubt that Rahul Gandhi would be the preferred choice of an overwhelming majority of party workers. He has not indicated whether he wants the job.”
“I suppose we will have to wait for the proposed AICC (All India Congress Committee) to settle that issue,” Tharoor stated.
On the problem of ‘delicate Hindutva’, hotly debated on the Shivir, he stated it’s clear the celebration’s basic dedication to India’s pluralism and variety is “non-negotiable”.
“We have long used the word secularism for this, but secularism implies a distancing from religion, whereas we in India are deeply implicated in religious practices, customs, rituals, festivals and conventions. The Congress has no problem with its members showing respect for all religions,” Tharoor stated.
As an MP, he harassed, he goes to temples, church buildings and mosques in his constituency on a regular basis – to temples as a devotee, to the others to display respect for the sacred beliefs of his constituents and fellow-citizens.
“This may not seem very secular, but it is not ‘soft Hindutva’ by any means. Hindutva is a political ideology that has little to do with religion or the Hindu faith – it is a doctrine that preaches the supremacy of a particular cultural identity, in violation of the key Hindu tenet that teaches us the acceptance of difference,” Tharoor stated.
This sort of majoritarian politics is alien to the Congress, he asserted.
Responding to regional events such because the RJD criticising Rahul Gandhi’s remarks that they can’t combat the BJP-RSS as they lack ideology, Tharoor stated he doesn’t assume any slight was meant aside from to level out that their imaginative and prescient is by definition regional whereas the Congress is a nationwide celebration with a presence in each district of the nation.
“My personal view is that all of us like-minded parties, both regional and national, will have to work together to take on the NDA in 2024. Otherwise, we will see an irrevocable transformation of India into an intolerant, narrow-minded autocracy led by a majoritarian-minded BJP,” he stated.
Asked about reform measures comparable to a collective management and a parliamentary board not being absolutely accepted on the Shivir, Tharoor stated he was within the political committee and never aware of discussions within the organisation committee the place such issues had been handled.
