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CWC accepts Antony Committee's report, decides to tone up party

The Congress has concluded that organisational weaknesses contributed immensely to its debacle in the last Lok Sabha election. The Congress Working Committee put its stamp of approval on a series of measures recommended by the A K Antony Committee to tone up its structures at various levels.

Briefing reporters on the CWC meeting which considered the Antony panel's recommendations at length yesterday, senior Congress politician Pranab Mukherjee said the leaders felt that no single reason, including pulling down the A B Vajpayee government, contributed to the party's reverses.

The introspection committee headed by Antony, set up immediately after the party's debacle, held talks with Congress politicians in various parts of the country on the reasons for the poor showing before submitting a report to president Sonia Gandhi about 10 days ago. The report was considered at length by the CWC in two sessions, which ended last night.

A major recommendation of the committee, and accepted by the CWC, is to announce party candidates a month in advance for assembly constituencies and three months ahead for Lok Sabha elections.

The move is aimed at putting an end to the practice of last-minute selection of candidates and the resultant confusion in the ranks, Mukherjee said. The party has usually been deciding its candidates on the last day of nominations.

On the controversial issue of the party's stand on coalitions, both the committee and the CWC stuck to the Pachmarhi declaration that the Congress would enter into coalitions only as a last resort, that too based on a common minimum programme. The declaration had also made it clear that the party would strive to retain its primacy at the national level.

But another major recommendation of the Antony Committee, to replace district Congress committees and block Congress committees with Lok Sabha and assembly constituency committees, respectively, has been kept in abeyance because its implementation needs amendment of the party's constitution and approval by a plenary session.

As part of the democratisation process from the grassroots, it has been decided that the process of secret balloting by active members of the party will be introduced even in the election of booth, village and block committees. The Antony committee had stressed that such secret balloting is required at all echelons of the party.

The CWC also agreed that the disciplinary action committee should give its decisions within a month of conclusion of elections to ensure timely action against those who sabotaged the party's prospects from within the ranks.

The working committee also decided that no politician who joins the party, particularly on election eve, should get the party's ticket without being a member for a while. This principle will be implemented as a general norm.

The party has also decided to enrol the intelligentsia and make space for them in its deliberative and decision-making organs to counter their distancing from the party. The election results had confirmed the party's growing alienation from the educated, urban middle class and the Congress president should have direct access to the intelligentsia, the Antony Committee recommended.

In a move to create the party's own dalit support base rather than depending on other parties, the Congress has also decided to build up its own dalit leadership wherever possible. It will make special efforts to reach out to well-educated, upwardly mobile young persons from the scheduled castes and other backward classes who could be nurtured to important positions in the party.

The party has accorded priority to retrieving the scheduled caste and scheduled tribe seats and their votes. The Congress used to have its own dalit voter base until the 1980s when it began losing out to other political outfits like the Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh.

The CWC also decided that OBC voters should be brought back to the party's fold by giving them adequate representation in the organisation and elective bodies.

Another important requirement identified by the party is to reach out to Muslims, especially women.

The Antony Committee also emphasised the need to have dedicated full-time party workers to combat the cadre-based communal organisations. It expressed concern over the army of activists the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party have built up over the decades and the variety of educational, cultural and sports activities through which they have been "spreading their tentacles".

UNI

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