“Congress Needs Reforms”: says veteran Congress leader Kapil Sibal

The Congress must bring widespread reforms across all levels of the organization to show it is no longer in a state of inertia and to present itself as a viable political alternative to the BJP, party veteran Kapil Sibal said on Sunday.

Mr Sibal, who was among the G-23 leaders whose letter to Congress President Sonia Gandhi last year demanding a meaningful overhaul of the party had triggered a storm, hoped the organization polls, recently postponed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, will “happen sooner than later”.

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In an exclusive interview to PTI, the former union minister acknowledged that at present there is no strong political alternative to the BJP but said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has lost the moral authority to rule and the Congress can present an alternative due to the current mood in the country.

He also noted that while forming committees to review election losses is good, it will have no impact unless remedies suggested are implemented.

Nothing that the party’s alliance with the all India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) in Assam and Indian Secular Front (ISF) in West Bengal were “not thought through”, Mr Sibal said the Congress has failed to drive home the point that minority and majority communication are equally dangerous for the country.

He cited this as one of the reasons for the poor performance of the party in recent assembly polls.

Amid defections of young leaders- Jyotiradity Scindia and now Jitin Prasada – to the BJP, the former minister said “there is an urgent need to strike a balance between experience and youth.”

He has earlier said that from “aaya ram, gaya ram politics, it has come to “Prasada Politics now” and asked whether Jitin will get the “Prasad” from the BJP, suggesting that leaders were moving out of the party to serve their political interests.