CWC won’t let Sonia, Rahul go

New Delhi: Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party’s Prime Ministerial face Rahul Gandhi offered to resign at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Monday, owning moral responsibility for the party’s worst-ever defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

Their resignation offers, however, were turned down unanimously by all the CWC members, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh taking the blame for the party’s debacle, asserting that it was his responsibility, since he was heading the government. The Prime Minister told Sonia Gandhi, “I, as the head of government, will take the responsibility, not you. Resignation is not the solution.”

The highest decision-making body of the Congress, which met to take stock of its disastrous performance, ended up on a note of anti-climax, by authorizing Congress President Sonia Gandhi to prepare the roadmap for the party’s revival and to "revamp the party organisation at all levels". A resolution was passed in the meeting, which thanked both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for their untiring efforts, acknowledging that they both travelled and campaigned extensively. “It is up to her to take whatever steps she deems fit to revitalize the party,” stated CWC invitee Amrinder Singh, talking to The Hans India.

Except for former Punjab CM Amrinder Singh, who emerged as the giant-killer by defeating BJP leader Arun Jaitley, all the other senior leaders faced electoral defeat, including Madhusudan Mistry, Oscar Fernandes, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Gurudas Kamat in the polls.

There were others, who refused to contest the crucial polls, like former Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Seniors like Janardhan Dwivedi, Mohsina Kidwai, Motilal Vora and Ahmed Patel are veterans in the party and are members from the Rajya Sabha.

In the two-and-a-half-hour-long CWC meeting, Congress President Sonia Gandhi spoke first, accepting that it was the most humiliating defeat for the Congress. She admitted that they had failed in some ways to project the policies and programmes of the government and the party and blamed the Opposition for polarization. She also took the onus of not making the party strong enough so that it could withstand the vilification campaign of the Opposition.

Accepting her failure to bring about the changes that were required to face the (communal) Opposition, she said that she was taking the first initiative to resign. She said, "I believe, I have not been able to bring about the necessary changes to strengthen the party. I take full responsibility for this crushing defeat and I am prepared to relinquish my position."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who owes his ten-year tenure to Sonia Gandhi, came to her rescue, taking the blame entirely on himself. He felt that the government could not come up with a convincing response to the issues like price-rise and corruption. He, then, went on to praise the Congress President for her tireless work and taking on the burden of the campaign that was unusual. He said that resignation was not the solution.

While the Prime Minister stood up to defend Sonia Gandhi, it was the turn of all the CWC members to reject Rahul Gandhi’s resignation, when, after the Congress President, he, too, offered to quit his post. No member was ready to let him continue with his offer and instead wanted to shift the focus on the future challenges confronting the party.

If this was not enough, the CWC resolution also went on to praise Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his dignified and sober leadership, hoping that the history will judge him more kindly.