Day after, Cong dissenters say issues raised need redressal

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 25

A day after they were cornered in the CWC meeting, a section of Congress dissenters said the issues raised by them deserved redressal and organisational reforms in the party were a larger national imperative.

The pro-reform leaders, including Kapil Sibal and Anand Sharma, both hailed Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s “graciousness” in “letting bygones be bygones” and said they were hopeful of party’s unity in the country’s interests.

Sibal earlier tweeted, “It’s not about a post. It’s about my country which matters the most… we now hope the party will be united and will put up a strong fight against the BJP,” Sibal said.

While most leaders who signed the letter chose to stay silent after yesterday when the seniormost signatory Ghulam Nabi Azad was at the receiving end, Mukul Wasnik, a CWC member and a signatory to the controversial letter, today said the letter was written in the party’s and the nation’s interest and raised vital issues concerning Congress reinvigoration.

Another signatory Vivek Tankha also took the line that the country needed brave people. “We are not dissenters but proponents of revival. The letter was not a challenge to leadership but a parchment of action to strengthen the party,” said Tankha, a Rajya Sabha MP.

The letter writers are now waiting for the Congress to make some amends before deciding on the next course of action. While the dissenters wait for things to take a favourable turn, Congress leaders didn’t mince words in attacking them, with veterans alleging that the signatories strengthened the BJP’s hands, an insinuation Rahul made yesterday at the CWC, although the Congress insisted Rahul hadn’t said so.