Party insiders blame the situation on the waning authority of the Gandhi family.
NEW DELHI: As many as 49 complaints, including the recent one against P.C. Chacko who is the Delhi unit in-charge, for breaking the party line, are pending before the Disciplinary Action Panel of the Congress, but the panel is seemingly not interested in initiating any action regarding all these complaints.
The last action was taken by the panel against Mani Shankar Aiyar a year ago. Since then, no action has come against any leader for speaking against the party line. The names of leaders who are facing complaints include P.C. Chacko, Sandeep Dikshit, Sachin Pailot, Jyotiradiya Schindia, Shashi Tharoor, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Milind Deora, Sanjay Nirupam, Jairam Ramesh, Ashok Tanwar, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Digvijaya Singh. The complaints against the above leaders are pending for more than two to five years.
The aforementioned leaders have been breaking the party line and speaking against the party’s “ethos”. Despite their conduct, the Congress’ Disciplinary Action Panel has been almost silent on taking any action. For this non-functional approach, party insiders blame the waning authority of the Gandhi family.
A Congress insider told The Sunday Guardian: “The Congress is not in such a situation to be able to take action against most of the leaders as the party is already facing a grim scenario and struggling to perform better in election after election. In such circumstances, the party doesn’t want to take the risk of acting against any of the above leaders.”
However, Congress spokesperson Akhilesh Pratap Singh denied the chargesthat the party’s disciplinary panel was defunct. He said: “The media is just misreporting; why are sections of the media not asking about the functioning of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s disciplinary action panel and if any action has been taken by it? When did the BJP’s disciplinary action committee take any action against any leader, including Pragya Thakur?”
Congress’ official website lists octogenarian leaders Motilal Vora, A.K. Antony and Sushil Kumar Shinde as members of the Disciplinary Committee; however, most of these leaders have lost their grip on the ground and hardly have any
authority.
Apart from this, there is no mention on the website when the last elections were held to choose members of the Disciplinary Committee. Observers say that the Congress is facing a tough time and if discipline is not instilled in the party, there will hardly be any change in the situation.
Sanjeet Yadav, a scholar of Khurukshetra University, told this newspaper, “Discipline and command is what is lacking in the Congress; the recent episode of the Haryana Congress involving two factions—one led by former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and another by Ashok Tanwar—revealed the waning clout of the Gandhi family. The entire Congress structure needs to be reshuffled and enthusiastic people need to be appointed; there is a need to have a well-designed and active disciplinary committee to give a kick-start to the party.”
Currently, the Congress is under pressure to perform better in the Haryana and Maharashtra polls, but the tide seems to be against the party in both the states.