Congress plans conclave at Vrindavan

George Iype in New Delhi

Congress president Sitaram Kesri has asked top leaders to prepare policy papers to clarify the party’s stand on crucial issues before the upcoming conclave in April.

Party leaders hope the camp, at Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, will be like the Narora meet organised by Indira Gandhi in November 1972. There, the former prime minister had launched the famous 20-point programme and salvaged the party's image.

Now a preparatory committee, headed by senior Congress Working Committee member Nawal Kishore Sharma, is coming up with suggestions to cleanse the party of its image of being corrupt, and to reorient its policies and directions.

"The Vrindavan camp will find remedies to fight corruption in the Congress rank and file," Sharma told Rediff On The NeT. But he said the Congress is not alone responsible for corruption in the country.

"The entire political system is nowadays projected as corrupt," he said, affirming that the conclave would pave the way for the party's rejuvenation. Other committee members are senior Congress leaders Dr Manmohan Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, V N Gadgil and Madhavrao Scindia.

While Dr Singh is preparing a paper on the economic policy India should follow, Mukherjee will describe the Congress's foreign policies, Gadgil will submit a paper on organisational elections in the party, Scindia will discuss how to consolidate the party's political base while Sharma himself will prepare a report about the Congress party’s condition in various states.

Many second-rung leaders believe little has changed in the Congress after the Narora decisions were implemented and so seek a revival of Indira Gandhi's 20-point programmes.

"Kesri can not rejuvenate the party by merely holding the Vrindavan camp. The Congress's strategy in this era of coalition politics needs to be clearly spelt out," a Congress Lok Sabha member told Rediff On The NeT. "It is high time the Congress struck a balance between competitive populism and liberalisation policies as both can not go together," he observed.

Many party members feel that besides the corruption issue, the Vrindavan camp should formulate long-term strategies to arrest the party's slide in national politics. The conclave is expected to consider the party's stance on the creation of smaller states, the revival of the 20-point programme at a national level, a campaign against poverty and reunification of the splinter groups of the party.

Some party members feel the leadership has been letting Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda go ahead with the creation of Uttarakhand state. This "will encourage similar sentiments in Vidarbha and Telengana," said a Congress leader, adding that a national perspective was necessary on such issues.

About 500 Congress leaders are expected to attend the conclave.