CWC Meeting -- The Plan Was Successful

The Congress Working Committee meeting was held on Monday. It was expected that the meeting would reflect on the party's shameful defeat in the recent assembly elections; at least that's what party president Sonia Gandhi had said in the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting last week. The CWC meeting did happen, but the result was as expected – nothing much. Sonia Gandhi will remain the Congress president, no one will point a finger at the Gandhi family for the defeat, and the leaders of the G-23 group will only discuss how the party should be run in the media and remain silent spectators in the meeting.

Every meeting has a predetermined agenda. It seemed that the agenda of the CWC meeting was to conduct a thorough review of the election defeat. But the tone and purpose of every meeting are set by the opening address of the president. Since Sonia Gandhi began her address by talking about the government's shortcomings in the corona pandemic, three-fourths of the meeting's time was spent on this discussion. Now, only Sonia Gandhi knows what the difference was between Monday's CWC meeting and Friday's Congress Parliamentary Party meeting. If the discussion was to be on corona, then the justification for holding two meetings on the same subject in three days was also beyond comprehension. When the attempt is to find flaws in the government's fight against corona, moving away from the real issue, it becomes clear that the effort was to divert attention from the real issue and to just go through the motions in the name of that issue. And in this effort, Sonia Gandhi was completely successful.

The internal elections in the Congress party, at the end of which the national president of the Congress is elected, have been pending for a long time. There was talk of holding elections in the party in June, but as was being anticipated, the time is not favorable for holding elections now. This important election has been postponed for the time being, which is a correct decision. One should just hope that it has not been postponed indefinitely. The fight against corona will be long, and it should not happen that a favorable time does not come until the next general election. The election of the Congress president becomes more important because perhaps it can revive the party; a new president may bring new thinking, which can inject new vigor into the party. Whoever the new president may be, he will need time to shape the party and run it smoothly. The internal elections of the party seem to have been swallowed by corona for now, and until the elections are held, the Gandhi family is safe.

It is being speculated that Rahul Gandhi will once again be a contender for the post of party president. The only point of interest is whether his election will be unopposed or if he will have to face a challenge from the G-23 group. The interesting thing is that Rahul Gandhi did not attend this meeting. In a press conference held later, the party's chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, in response to a question, said that Rahul Gandhi has not yet fully recovered after being infected with corona and still has some symptoms of corona. Rahul Gandhi had announced on April 20 that he was infected with corona. One announces this only when one has been tested and the result is positive. Generally, one gets a corona test done only two-three days after falling ill when the fever does not subside. This means Rahul Gandhi must have been infected with corona around April 18. If he has not recovered even after three weeks, then this news is worrying. Usually, people recover from corona in 10 to 15 days, or they have to be admitted to the hospital. In this period of illness, it would be wrong to think that Rahul Gandhi deliberately stayed away from the CWC meeting because the post of party president was to be discussed, for which he is a strong contender, or that the party would review the reasons for the defeat for which he is being held responsible. It should be hoped that Rahul Gandhi will soon defeat corona and become completely healthy.

At the end of the meeting, the issue that was the main agenda of the meeting was also discussed – the electoral defeat. It was only discussed, not thoroughly reviewed, as was being expected. How could it be, when the responsibility for it lies with none other than the Gandhi family and the disastrous decisions taken by Rahul Gandhi in the name of Sonia Gandhi? The decision to contest the elections in alliance in Assam and West Bengal, to fight with the Left parties in West Bengal and against them in Kerala, all these decisions were Rahul Gandhi's.

The Congress party has been in power for a long time and has full knowledge of how to divert people's attention from an important or burning issue. If any such incident happens in the country in which public anger against the government seems to be increasing, a committee is formed to investigate it, and the committee does not give its report until people forget why the committee was formed. Something similar happened in the CWC meeting as well – the formation of a committee under the leadership of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was announced, which will talk to everyone about this and give its report. The intention of the Congress party and the Gandhi family would be that by getting entangled in the committee and the report, the anger arising from the defeat within the party will cool down, the government will continue to be criticized for the fight against corona and the farmers' movement, and people will have forgotten who took what wrong decision that led to another shameful defeat. The time gained from the formation of the committee will be utilized to establish the fact that there can be no other leader besides Rahul Gandhi who can revive the Congress party. In other words, the Gandhi family and their close associates were successful in achieving everything they had planned in Monday's CWC, and it seems the plan was to kill the snake without breaking the stick.