Congress MP from Anandpur Sahib Manish Tewari is part of the G-23 group of disgruntled leaders who have been pushing for organizational reforms and greater accountability of the party. The leaders of G-23 had a meeting on Wednesday, in which Manish Tewari was also present. In this meeting, the results of the recent assembly elections were discussed and it was said that the only way forward for the party is to have a system of collective and inclusive leadership. Talking to The Indian Express, Manish Tewari made a big statement and said that the party is probably looking towards a Congress-mukt India.
In the context of the G-23 meeting held on Wednesday, it was asked whether unilateral decisions are being taken now? To this, Manish Tewari said, “18 senior party leaders met at the residence of Ghulam Nabi Azad, including 5 former Chief Ministers, 7 former Union Ministers and other sitting and former MPs. Many other leaders could not attend this meeting due to Holi. Especially when we wrote a letter marking some important reforms that were needed to revive the party. Since then the Congress has lost in 11 states.”
Manish Tewari said that clearly the problem is there – there is a disconnect between the ground reality and decision making. On Congress’s continuing defeat in elections, the MP from Anandpur Sahib said, “It cannot be overemphasized that Congress is facing an existential crisis. We lost in 2014 and 2019… We have lost 39 out of 49 assembly elections since 2014. We have been able to win only four elections. We are indeed looking at a very serious situation.”
Manish Tewari said, “Every political party or every political movement is ultimately an idea. And the idea of Congress which is as old as 1885 seems to be dying out. There are five essential things in any political organization – Idea, Leadership, Narrative, Organization and Access to Resources.”
The Congress MP said, “The leadership that led us in the form of Sonia Gandhi from 1998 to 2017 is probably still the most acceptable leadership for a large section of Congress. But then Sonia Gandhi should come back to her old style and start implementing the principle of accountability, which unfortunately has been missing since 2017.