New Delhi: Congress’s Kapil Sibal, who has been under attack from party colleagues over his remarks criticizing the party leadership, has refused to officially answer the attacks. Sources on the brink of him, however, said he had expressed surprise on being attacked for not campaigning within the Bihar elections.
The attack came from the party’s leader within the Lok Sabha Adhir Chowdhury. “Had Kapil Sibal gone to Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, he could have proven that what he’s saying is correct which he strengthened the position of Congress,” Mr Chowdhury had said.
Leaders close to Mr Sibal said Mr Chowdhury’s stance is “unfortunate, since Adhir and other leaders aren’t aware that the majority of the G-23 leaders weren’t on the list of party campaigners for Bihar and none of them could even attend campaign unless the party officially requests them”. G-23 was a regard to the 23 dissenters who sent the primary critical letter to the party in August, triggering an indoor storm and ending up losing the varied party positions they held.
The latest Congress versus Congress battle – depart by the Bihar results — snowballed on Wednesday with Mr Chowdhury’s strong comments about the leaders involved. If some leaders think that Congress isn’t the proper party for them, they’ll found out a replacement party or can join the other party which they think is progressive and consistent with their interest. His attacking remarks Join Another Party Or Start Your Own has Congress Infighting Worsens.
Mr Sibal was the primary within the line of attack over his interview in news paper, where he advised the Congress to “recognize that we are in decline”, pointing to the string of reverses in Bihar, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh where the party features a strong presence. In the same interview, he had also mentioned that he had been forced to travel public together with his views as “there has been no dialogue and there seems to be no effort for a dialogue by the leadership”.
It drew barbs from Salman Khurshid, who said: “The fact is we all know who the leader is, the very fact is we follow the leader. If we follow the leader and that we aren’t getting what you think that we should always get doesn’t suggest we are getting to hand over the leader? Somebody doesn’t believe we’ve a pacesetter then they do not know what the party is about.”
On Tuesday, during a lengthy Facebook post, Mr Sibal called dissenters “doubting Thomases” that suffer “periodic pangs of anxiety” and advised them to not search for “short cuts” to power.
Without eager to join issue with Salman Khurshid or Ashok Gehlot, they added that there’s a “serious drift” within the party. Unless the party takes some drastic steps and reinvents itself with a robust and active leadership, the party might not be ready to combat the Narendra Modi government.