I believe the party deserves to move forward in a positive manner; After filing his nomination for the party’s presidential election, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said, “We have the answers India needs at this time, especially for those who have been suffering under the BJP rule for the last eight years.”
I believe the party deserves to move forward in a positive manner; After filing his nomination for the party’s presidential election, the Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram said, “We have the answers India needs at this time, especially for those who have been suffering under the BJP rule for the last eight years.”
Few hours after filing your nomination papers Senior leader for the post of Congress President Shashi Tharoor talks to Hindu On the reasons for contesting the election and its fighting prospects. He projected it as a competition between senior leadership who believed in the status quo and ordinary activists seeking change.
Why are you contesting this election?
I believe the party deserves to move forward in a positive manner; We have the answer to what India needs at the moment, especially for those who have been suffering under the BJP rule for the last eight years. And I think in order to do that, there has to be an approach that inspires party workers as well as attracts voters. More importantly, in the last few elections we were able to attract more voters than us.
You have been advocating for internal elections for a long time, but many feel it is deeply divisive. Within a week of the notification of this election, we saw how the Congress government in Rajasthan was thrown into trouble, your comment?
This was a particularly unfortunate situation, but I’m not sure it’s necessarily typical. I certainly have the highest regard for any name that comes to mind, Mr. Ashok Gehlot, Shri Mallikarjun Kharge, Mr. Digvijay Singh, they are all people whom I consider to be friends. I have treated him professionally over the years in the party. It is a friendly competition between colleagues and not a fight between rivals.
Last time Congress election was in 2001, when Jitendra Prasad got 94 votes against Sonia Gandhi, are you going to become Jitendra Prasad of 2022?
Who knows, we will find out when the votes will be counted on October 19. But my instinct is of course to give my good account to the voters and then leave it to them to exercise their choice.
You have already raised questions about the electoral roll, its non-availability and how the representatives are elected. So are you going to the polls with the belief that it is a fixed match?
When you want to play the game of cricket, you cannot choose the pitch that is given to you. You have to play on the available pitch. And the voter is like a pitch. This is the ground on which you have to bat freely. So I am going ahead, working on the assumption that we have to deal with this and we will deal with it.
Though the Gandhi family has assured you that they will remain neutral…
Absolutely! The three Gandhis have specifically told me that as far as they are concerned they don’t have an official candidate in the ground. And he has also emphasized that he welcomes an election that will strengthen the party.
No matter what they say, it is a known fact that Mr. Kharge is the establishment candidate and you are not.
I don’t see myself as a rebel, I see myself as a reformist. I see myself as someone who has always tried to bring everyone together. We are all really in this together. It’s not two rival camps where the winner gets it all. This is not a zero-sum game. Finally, at the end of it all, whoever votes for me will have to work for Mr. Kharge if he wins and reverse if my side wins.
But are you fighting this election just to make it a political issue, as many people see you as the loser even before the race starts?
I agree that I am seen as a Dalit in this race. To be honest, that’s fine, because in many ways there can be a certain amount of complacency on the other side of the equation. But at the same time, if you have the courage of your beliefs, you have to stick to them. I have believed it ever since I learned about leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and many other national heroes from our history books. He took the risk of sticking his neck out because he believed in doing the right thing. And that’s the right thing for me to do. When I entered this election, I did not do so out of naive illusion. Now that we know who the main opponent is (Mallikarjun Kharge), we recognize the immense seniority and experience that he has and I value that. When he turned 80 a few months ago, I wrote him a very generous tribute. I’m not demeaning my opponent, but I believe he represents him in many ways remain so, We saw how the establishment has built up around him. I am proud to say that I have ordinary party workers for the most part and only a handful of senior leaders who have filled my nomination form. My signatures represent the wishes of ordinary workers and to that extent I feel they represent a real constituency for change.
Your manifesto says “Congress must have a full-time president who is accessible to all and talks regularly workers…” are you saying that the current president was unreachable and didn’t listen workers,
It’s not about blaming anyone. It’s about projecting ideas for the future. Everyone has their own style of working. Many of the things I’ve suggested would represent a departure from the current way of doing things. There was a great tradition within the party. I have seen it happen under Indira Gandhi and I have read about it under Jawaharlal Nehru. So it’s not unprecedented, it’s something we’ve done in the past and that probably prevents security etc.
One charge against you is that you are a drawing room politician who cannot differentiate between a district Congress president and a block committee chief. And that you only stayed in the party for 13 years. How are you qualified to lead the party?
So this is again the choice that workers will need to make. I need not mention that Rahul Gandhi was in politics as an MP for 13 years when he became the President. So it’s not unprecedented. If people think it disqualifies me, they are free to vote otherwise. My innate instinct is that I have few ideas that are worth making. As far as the allegation of not being able to differentiate between the District President and the Block Pramukh is concerned, let me remind you that I am the leader of the Lok Sabha, not the parachuter of the Rajya Sabha. There is someone who had to go out and interact with all these officials, not only to win votes, but to get their work done in the constituency. All of these require the same quality that my critics claim I do not possess. I managed to win three elections, so there is something wrong with his criticism.
How will you promote?
We have only 16 days left and voting is on the 17th day, it is impossible to go to all the 28 states and eight union territories. But I think the intention would be to go to a dozen states to meet with whatever representatives are available. We’ve got a list of representatives today, but most of them don’t have phone numbers or e-mail addresses so we’ll have to figure out a way to get our message across to them.