- >>
- Politics
NEW DELHI: Former Defence Minister A.K.Antony has formally submitted his Committee’s report on the reasons for the Congress party’s debacle in the Lok Sabha elections, to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. And as expected the committee has exonerated Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
At least that is what can be gauged from Antony’s remarks when he told reporters “Rahul Gandhi was not responsible for the poll debacle...I am not going to reveal or say anything about the content of the report.” He further added, “Rahul and Soniaji were the ones who held rallies across the country. Something else was the reason for this loss.”
There is considerable speculation, as a result, within the Congress. A senior leader told a few reporters that the party’s worst ever performance was because of ‘sabotage’ by senior leaders from within. He said that the seniors had not worked for the party during the polls, and had instead waged factional wars instead of uniting to lead the party in their respective states.
Antony has always been seen as a loyalist to the Nehru-Gandhi family and it was clear from the beginning that his report would be basically an effort to absolve the party president and her son from any blame for the defeat. Congress party leaders still critical of the first family’s inability to lead the party from the front, and to mess up the distribution of tickets on the ‘wrong advise’ of power lords in the states are now resigning themselves to the fact that the leadership is not going to take any real action to revive the party.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s behaviour remains erratic, from rushing into the well of the Lok Sabha on one day, to lapsing into complete silence on the next day. He has not been travelling and after the defeat there has been no effort to shake up the party from within. In fact Sonia Gandhi seems to be opting for the status quo, and as sources pointed out, she prefers to go with the known rather than the unknown.
So far the tour plans of the top brass for the forthcoming Assembly elections are not known with Rahul Gandhi himself not being seen in the electoral field.
The members of the Antony committee were Mukul Wasnik, R.C.Khuntia and Avinash Pandey. Wasnik, a younger Congress leader who prides himself on being a loyalist to the family, told the media that the “Congress will reclaim its glory under the leadership of Soniaji and Rahulji.”
