`Trying for Cong chief’s post not a challenge’

You mean there is no freedom, no consultation before decisions are taken?
Consultations should be at all levels in a free and fearless atmosphere.

There is an impression that decisions are taken and the CWC is a mere rubber stamp body.

I don’t think so. The CWC is not a rubber stamp body.

How often does Sonia Gandhi consult you?
Whenever the Congress president thinks it’s necessary.

When did you meet her last?
Quite sometime ago. Whenever I have something to say, I meet her or whenever she has something to tell me.

It is reported in the Press that Sonia Gandhi has a coterie.

I have been reading about it.

Are you aware of such a coterie?
I am not.

But are you a member of the Congress president’s core team?
It is the party chief’s prerogative to chose her team.

Do you fall in her team or not?
Why are you asking me. Ask her. I am a Congress worker and she is the Congress president.

How do you react to the abrupt removal of Salman Khurshid from the Uttar Pradesh PCC chief’s post?
The Congress president can make a change as and when she considers it fit. The change in U.P. appeared abrupt because it was done just 45 days beforethe organisational elections. If the Congress president has made a change there must have been some reason for that.

Were you consulted?
No.

But you have been pressuring the high command for his removal for long?
I never pressured anybody for the change. I never demanded or asked for the change. I have only been saying that the Congress is getting weaker in U.P.and all Congressmen should feel concerned about it and do everything possible to revitalise the party.

One removal after the other — first Ahmad Patel, then Ghani Khan Chaudhary and now Salman Khurshid. Do you find a pattern?
If you mean that they all belong to the minority community, there certainly is a pattern. But if you mean that the Congress is isolating leaders from the minorities, I don’t agree.

But V.N. Gadgil is on record that to keep the minorities with it, the Congress lost the support of the majority. Do you agree?
Elections results have proved that we lost substantial electoral support, both of the majority and the minority communities. Various Opposition parties were able to beguile a considerable number of voters from the two communities into believing that the Congress was tilting towards the other. The result was that we lost both. If that has happened, we must go into the reasons and rectify the situation. The big challenge is how to restore the perception that secularism for the Congress does not mean favouring or pampering one community or the other.

There are many who say that Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin is a stumbling block.

If you are referring to the point that Soniaji’s foreign origin is a handicap for her or the Congress, I can only say that when Sharad Pawar said this in the CWC I had strongly opposed him.

Sitaram Kesri is on record that he would react at the right time about his removal. Weren’t you a party to his removal?
That is past. What is the use of going into that now. Kesriji has been and still is a respected leader. He has a right to hold views on issues andexpress them.

Do you think a one-man-one-post principle be applied in the Congress? P.V. Narasimha Rao was removed under the same logic.

It is not correct to say that Rao was removed from the Congress president’s post on the one-man-one-post principle. But I think the principle is valid. But Soniaji is an exception.

Can the party be revived?
The party will be back on the rails the moment Congress workers are given a free and fair chance to shape the organisation of their dreams. That must now be the effort in the organisational elections.

Arjun Singh has said he wouldn’t contest for the CWC because of his age ?If that is to open the way for the young, I welcome the idea. Whether or not to contest the elections is anyway an individual decision.

Then why did a young Noor Bano lose?
Because she did not get enough votes to win. However, she gave a very good fight, a good number of our MPs backed her, which is remarkable.

Do you think the election process for organisational polls is correct?

The process is correct, but there have been complaints about the practice. Ram Niwas Mirdhaji is a senior and experienced leader and knows that as in charge of the election he is accountable not only to today’s Congress leaders and workers but to the history and heritage of the Indian National Congress and to its future generations.

Now that Rajesh Pilot is no more, will there be a contest for the Congress president’s post?
If a consensus can be achieved, it is good. But a contest should not be construed as a challenge. Isn’t it a healthy sign in a democracy?

Are you contesting? Some reports say you are in the race.

The question of contesting does not arise at the moment.

Why?
Because the process has hardly started.