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A day after Jitin Prasada switched to the BJP, senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said the Congress needs to undergo a “major surgery” and not depend just on legacy, asserting that the top leadership must give primacy to ideological commitment while giving responsibility to leaders.
Alleging that Prasada had placed “personal ambition” over everything else, Moily said the Uttar Pradesh leader’s ideological commitment was suspect from the beginning and the party winning zero seats in West Bengal under his charge showed that he was incompetent.
In an interview with PTI, Moily also said the top leadership should make a proper assessment of leaders in the party, asserting that “one cannot make people leaders when they do not deserve it”.
The Congress has to rethink and re-strategise some of these things and then only the party can come up, the former Union minister said.
“Properly reorganise the party with proper people in positions and not put incompetent people (in positions of responsibility) who cannot deliver. This is a lesson, the Congress needs to make an introspection in the face of the developments,” Moily said, making suggestions for the party’s high command.
Asked if Prasada’s exit from the Congress has a message for the party top brass, he said they must give importance to leaders’ antecedents, ideology and their approach to the common people, while appointing them to positions of importance.
Another senior Congress leader former Union minister Kapil Sibal has called for reforms in the grand old party. Sibal said the Congress desperately needs reforms and the party leadership had to listen. In an interview to a television channel, Sibal, who was part of the “G-23” team who wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi which was dubbed as a dissident activity, said the issues must be addressed as quickly as possible.
When asked about the chances of him joining the BJP, Sibal ruled out any such move, saying, “I will never in my life over my dead body join the BJP who I have opposed since my birth as a politician.
“Issues were not addressed, that is true. They must be addressed as quickly as possible. We will continue to raise those issues. If the party for some reason tells me we don’t need you, I will leave it. I am not in it for myself, but I will never in my life over my dead body join the BJP who I have opposed since my birth as a politician,” he said, as the channel quoted him.
