HRD Minister Arjun Singh's plain talk at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting that inflation cannot be wished away has raised many an eyebrow in party circles.
NEW DELHI: HRD Minister Arjun Singh's plain talk at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting that inflation cannot be wished away has raised many an eyebrow in party circles.
While several leaders said at the CWC meeting on Sunday night that price rise was not the main cause of the debacle in Karnataka and there were other factors, sources said Singh, in significant remarks, said inflation could not be wished away.
His remark was being seen in party circles as a veiled attack on the government's handling of the price rise issue.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh explained the situation caused by volatility in global crude oil prices and said all steps would be taken to ensure that the burden on people with regard to fuel prices was minimum.
The CWC also saw senior leader C K Jaffar Sharief's strong plea for a brainstorming session like the one in Pachmarhi.
Jaffar Sharief circulated a note in which he called for a "thorough introspection to find out where we have slipped the ground and how to bring back credibility to the party and the leadership."
"We should also find credible instruments within the party who can ably address these problems and find solutions," he said in the note.
He said, "we need to sit seriously for 2 or 3 days for a thorough introspection."
The AICC has held two such brainstorming sessions since Sonia Gandhi became the party chief a decade back. The first was held in September 1998 at Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh while the other was held in 2003 at Shimla, a few months before the Lok Sabha polls.
Sharief, who had been sulking before the Karnataka polls due to denial of ticket to a close relative, expressed satisfaction that the Congress President has taken the recent poll debacles "very seriously".
In the note, he said it should be the responsibility of the Ministers to see that the benefits of the government schemes reach the people. He said the workers should be involved in communicating to the people that the party was giving these benefits to the masses under the its leadership.
"This was prevalent during Indira Gandhi's time," he said adding that it has become "reverse" now.
He regretted that while the BJP has ideologically committed support of Sangh Parivar, who have "selfless volunteers", the Congress does not have the same.
"The office-bearership of our Seva Dal, Youth Congress, NSUI, Women Wing, Minority Department, Backward, SC/ST Departments have become a stepping stone to get a party nomination or ticket to some position," he lamented.
In his remarks, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed the view that the organisation at the lower levels had almost become defunct.
The marathon discussions were dominated by the issue of electoral reverses as also accountability in the backdrop of the party's defeat in Karnataka, the 13th since the UPA came to power at the Centre in May 2004.
The CWC decided to set up a high-level committee to "revive" the organisation and interestingly, the suggestion to set up the group was made by Arjun Singh.
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