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Distinguished Members of the Congress Working
Committee,
Fellow-Members of the AICC,
May I extend to each one of you a very
warm
welcome to this session of the All India
Congress
Committee. You have elected me President
of this
great organization. I am aware of the
awesome
responsibility you have placed upon me. It
is with
deep humility that I accept this
privilege. I
pledge myself to serving the Party with
sincerity
and dedication.
Men and women of very high eminence have
held this
office. For a century and more they have
defined
the destiny of this great nation. It is
they who
brought us our freedom. It is they who
have built
modern India. They have moulded the
Congress into
the prime instrument and expression of our
national consciousness. It is through the
Congress
that the nation has rediscovered its sense
of
purpose. It is through the Congress that
we as a
people have forged our unity. It is the
Congress
that has developed the dynamics of
people's
action.
From the very inception the Congress has
stood for
a free, democratic, just and secular
India. I pay
homage to Mahatma Gandhi, who ensured that
the
20th century would be for India - and the
world -
the century of national liberation.
I pay tribute to his team of noble
disciples who
brought us to freedom - Motilal Nehru,
Chittaranjan Das, Sardar Patel, Rajaji,
Maulana
Azad, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad,
Sarojini
Naidu, Subhas Chandra Bose. I pay tribute
also to
the Congress Prime Ministers of
Independent India,
who between them gave our country for and a
half
decades of democratic governance, raising
prosperity and stable governments. I pay
special
tribute to Indiraji and Rajivji who have
become
martyrs in the service of our country. I
salute
all my other distinguished predecessors
and pray
that I shall prove worthy of them.
I have come to this office at a critical
point in
the history of Party. Our numbers in
Parliament
have dwindled. Our support base among the
electorate has been seriously eroded. Some
segments of the voters - including our
tribals,
dalits and minorities - have drifted from
us. We
are in danger of losing our central place
in the
polity of our country as the natural party
of
governance. At the centenary session of
the
Congress back in 1985 Rajiv Gandhi had
pointed out
certain weakness in the working of the
Congress
Party.
He asked; "What has become of our great
organization? Instead of a party that
fired the
imagination of the masses throughout the
length
and breadth of India, we have shrunk,
losing touch
with the masses." It was by firing the
imagination
of our people that Gandhiji won us our
freedom. It
was by firing the imagination of the
people that
Panditji and indiraji built an India of
which the
nation was proud. And it was through what
he
called "a politics of service to the poor"
that my
husband sought to ignite the imagination
of the
people.
In his centenary speech, he etched the
outlines of
the programme he had in mind: "The power
to shape
their own lives must lie with the people
....
Vibrant village panchayats must discuss,
deliberate and decide the choices to be
made."
unquote He called this the "challenge to
the
Congress cadres". "It is up to us, the
workers of
this great organization," he said: "to
spread in
every village and every hamlet of India,
to
mobilize the people, to guide them, to
stand by
their side when they are denied their
due..." To
this rejuvenate the Congress, Rajiv Gandhi
emphasized two key issues. One, the role
of
ideology, policies and programmes in the
everyday
life of the Party. He said: "The ideology
of the
Congress has acquired the status of an
heirloom,
to be polished and brought out on special
occasions. It must be a living force to
animate
the Congress workers in their day-to-day
activity.
Our ideology of nationalism, secularism,
democracy
and socialism is the only relevant
ideology for
our great country." And the instrument for
carrying the Congress policies to the
people had,
of course, to be the humble Congress
worker. But
the genuine Congress worker remains
unheeded and
unrecognised. He is not only the last to
be heard
but also the least heard. I see it as my
primary
task as Congress President to restore to
the
Congress the vision of the Congress
centenary -
Power to the People through the
panchayats; and
Power to the Congress worker through
democracy
within the Party.
I am no saviour, as some of you might want
to
believe. We must be realistic in our
expectations.
The revival of our Party is going to be a
long
drawn process, involving sincere hardwork,
from
each and everyone of us. But I do have an
abiding
faith in the path shown to us by our
leaders in
the past. It is the only path that will
lead us to
our goal. And I believe we can attain it
if we act
together and hold together. In practical
terms,
our task is to give the people of India an
organization that stands form them, that
fights
for their rights and is anchored to the
principles
on which our nationhood is founded. We
must shun
what is expedient and stand by what is
right. That
is what Gandhiji taught us. This simple
truth
wrested for our Independence from the
mightiest
military power then known to history.
This simple truth is what Panditji
practised - and
made India a role model for other emerging
national, a voice heard with respect
around the
world.
Our is the oldest, most venerated Party in
the
country. It is the only Party with
adherents in,
literally, every village, every mohalla,
every
basti. Ours is still, notwithstanding
recent
reverses, the most representative Party in
the
country, the only political mirror which
reflects
all the glorious diversity of this vast
and
wonderful land. It is, therefore, a
national
imperative, not merely a partisan
requirement,
that we store the Congress to its former
primacy.
It is the only Party whose fundamental
adherence
to secularism has never been diluted.
Gandhiji said all great political parties
needed
faithful agents to implement their
policies and
programmes. We have in our ranks lakhs of
dedicated, efficient, talented men and
women. They
combine the energy of youth with the
wisdom of
age. We are the one Party that excludes
none and
includes all - both genders, all ages,
every
caste, every creed, every class, every
region. For
our workers to fulfil the role of faithful
agents
of the Party, they cannot be mere
playthings of
the leadership. Our leadership must in
fact emerge
from the grassroots. It must reflect the
aspirations of the grassroots. It must be
sensitive to the demands of the
grassroots.
My priority will be reinforce the role of
the
ordinary worker in the organization of the
Party.
I appeal to all office holders from
panchayat and
block level upwards to be mindful of the
grievances of grassroot workers and ensure
that
they are heard with courtesy and
understanding.
This alone will give us an organizational
structure representative of the Party,
responsible
to the Party, and therefore, responsive to
the
Party. It is our immediate task to reverse
these
trends. To my mind, this can be achieved
only
through a radical programme of
introspection and
reflection. We need nothing less than the
complete
revitalization of the Congress, a return
to the
time when the Congress was the instinctive
first
choice of the electorate. I have set in
motion a
process by which appropriate committees
have been
appointed and asked to visit the States
where we
have done badly.
The findings and conclusions of these
committees
will be carefully studied, analyzed and
acted upon
by the Working Committee. In the next few
months
there will be Vidhan Sabha elections in
several
States. It is imperative that our Party
starts
preparing for them from now. But cutting
across
States are some broader issues that
deserve our
immediate attention and require concrete
and
corrective action. Our Party has to renew
itself
by attracting the best and the brightest
of the
young to join and contribute to its
growth. Youth
needs encouragement; youth needs
opportunity;
youth needs training.
Youth is idealistic. It is wary of the
unsavoury.
It is inspired by the moral high ground.
We will
spot promising young talent; we will
nurture it;
we will promote it. We will identify with
the
aspirations of the new generation and make
them
feel that, establishment though we are for
over a
century, we are conscious of their
concerns and
responsive to their quest for answers.
Ours will
be a Party which gives real responsibility
to the
youth. Ours must also be the Party which
gives
real responsibility to women. Tokenism
will not do
and is, indeed, offensive. Women must not
find
themselves shelved and marginalised into
just
their frontal organization.
It is my purpose to bring them to the
Party's
mainstream. At the grassroots,
reservations for
women in the panchayats have opened vast
opportunities for their political
empowerment and
active participation in governance. We
must
however give much higher priority than we
have
done to identifying and readying women
candidates
for election to the panchayats and
nagarpalikas at
all levels. In the State Assemblies and
Parliament, we will be unflinching and
resolutely
committed to reservations for women in our
legislatures. We must so comport ourselves
that
the women of India identify with the
Congress as
their Party of preference. We have not
made
sufficient efforts to engage community
leaders in
serious dialogue or win them over to our
way of
thinking.
All our political energies seem to be
concentrated
on elections. In between lethargy overtake
us. We
must resist this. Indiscipline and
indifferent
performance should have no place in our
Party. We
must be in constant touch with our
constituents.
For Party workers, this means living and
moving
among the people. Four our parliamentary
and
legislative representatives, it means
spending a
significant part of every month travelling
to
every corner of their respective
constituencies.
And our emphasis should not only be on
elections
but on pressing social, economic and
political
issues of the day. Through this we will be
able to
fulfil or broader social and political
agenda.
Thus will we restore our links with the
society
and communities we serve. The AICC, the
PCCs, the
DCCs, the Block Committees and the primary
units
all need streamlining and toning up.
I intend to apply my mind to
administrative
restructuring so that our Party becomes an
effective instrument for mobilizing the
people and
translating our policies and programmes
into
action. I plan to travel extensively to
see for
myself how this is unfolding on the
ground. To be
systematic in our approach, I propose to
appoint a
Monitoring Committee which will supervise
programme implementation and report
directly to
me. It will charge immediate goals and
ensure that
we keep track of our progress. Immediately
after
this session of the AICC, I will address
myself to
the working of our frontal organizations
which
need effective and purposeful leadership
and
orient their role to what the people of
our
country need.
The NSUI, the Youth Congress, the Seva Dal
and the
Mahila Congress must become active agents
for the
betterment of society. They can no longer
remain,
as they have tended to be, the closed
preserves of
special self-perpetuating groups. They
ought to
welcome all those who are interested in
the
welfare and improvement of the lives of
our
people, especially the poor and
disadvantaged.
They should not be mere stepping stones to
a
political career; rather, they should be
instruments for the propagation of our
policies
and programmes. These bodies should be
examples of
sustained and dynamic action. They should
be in
the forefront of campaigns on such social
issues
as female infanticide, child marriage,
dowry
deaths, atrocities on women, the
exploitation of
the underprivileged, caste and communal
violence,
and discrimination in any form. They must
be in
the vanguard of the promotion of literacy,
the
legal rights of women, gender equality and
family
planning. This is a vast agenda and it
will
constructively absorb the energies of our
active
workers. We have slipped perilously in the
esteem
of the educated, the urban and the young
voter. It
was our party which lowered the voting age
to 18
from 21; yet, as the average Indian voter
gets
younger and more educated, it is our Party
which
has suffered reverses. To this large and
influential segment of the electorate,
some of
their disenchantment with us arises from
our Party
being seen as soft on corruption and
criminalization. The impression has gained
ground
among them that we want to cling to power
or
achieve it at any cost.
We need to build bridges with the
intelligentsia,
with young professionals, with educated
voters,
with universities and institutions of
higher
learning and research where opinion makers
are
reared. We must revive the culture of
informed
discussion in the Congress Party. We will
chart
changes and new courses as the situation
requires
by holding Narora-type camps. We cannot
represent
the diversity of India and shy away from
frank
discussion. At such camps we should aim to
strive
for consensus if not unanimity. At these
camps the
participants should also reflect on the
more
uplifting and enduring aspects of our
political
activity. We must raise fundamental
questions
which should be of relevance to the party
in the
next century. We will also strengthen our
Parliamentary wing and the legislature
parties.
They need analytical expertise and sound
intellectual support.
To this end, I am constituting committees
which
will meet regularly and provide inputs to
our
parliamentarians for use in debates in
both
Houses. These committees will also track
the
performance of the government in vital
areas, and
help formulate bills that the Congress
will table.
They will also interact with scholars,
intellectuals, business groups, NGOs and
others.
To eliminate certain misgivings, we need
to put in
place a transparent and accountable system
of
party financing. The people of our country
are no
longer willing to forgive trespass in this
area.
We need reform at a wider, national level
involving all political parties. But while
we will
need a broader consensus, we must be
prepared to
put our own house in order. In my
judgement it is
essential to ensure a clean, transparent
and
accountable system of financing. It is an
acknowledged fact that donations are made
to all
political parties, including the Congress
party.
We cannot single-handedly change this
system. But
to make a beginning, we should change our
election
oriented emphasis towards raising
financial
resources on a sustained, on-going basis.
I would like to commend the Kerala Pradesh
Congress Committee in this regard and use
its
funds raising drive from the public as an
example
for others to follow. I also appeal to the
elected
representatives at the district, pradesh
and
national levels to give a portion of their
income
for party work. There is no reason why at
the end
of the year we cannot have a balance sheet
that
acknowledges the source and utilization of
such
funds. In this context I would like to
draw your
attention to the decision taken by the
Congress
Working Committee in November `96 and
September
`97 where all office holders of the Party
are
expected to submit annually a statement of
their
assets and liabilities to their respective
PCCs,
and AICC as the case may be.
Another area of people's dissatisfaction
is
related to the manner in which some of us
conduct
ourselves both in and out of legislative
bodies.
There has been a marked deterioration in
this
regard. Our democracy has no room for
rowdyism and
disruption. We must honour the traditions
of our
Parliament and gain the confidence of the
people
by setting high standards of moral and
political
behaviour. Having said that I must stress
that our
members will be expected to severely and
relentlessly oppose any attempt at
diluting
policies and programmes central to the
well-being
of our people. For this our members must
be at all
times fully prepared with facts and data
to
effectively expose the Government.
I now draw your attention to a subject
which has
aroused some controversy. This relates to
the
programmes of liberalization and
globalisation. We
have been told that we have compromised
with our
basic economic ideology. It was at a time
of grave
economic reforms. It was a path charted
out by my
husband and carried forward by Shri PV
Narasimha
Rao. Rajiv Gandhi had set the economy on
the road
to rapid growth and transformation while
keeping
at the forefront the need to protect the
poor and
disadvantaged from any ill-effects of
social
change. First of all, we need to build a
strong
resurgent economy which can grow annually
at 7-8
percent. We need this order of growth to
create
new job opportunities for our expanding
labour
force and to increase the resource base of
our
economy so as to devote more resources for
poverty
alleviation Programmes.
Economic reforms- liberalization and
measured
opening out to the rest of the world are
essential
for this purpose. At the same time, we
need well
designed strategies to empower the poor to
benefit
more effectively from processes of
development. To
ensure its sustainability, the reform
ought to be
seen as making a substantial difference in
the
daily lives of ordinary citizens,
Particularly
those who live in destitution and
deprivation. I
am aware of the doubts and fears about
liberalisation and globalisation. It is
our duty
to dispel them. It is our task to reassure
the
people in this regard. We must make sure
that the
government in office does not betray their
interests in any way. We must insist on a
much
greater emphasis on basic social services,
such
as, education, health, implementation of
land
reforms and improvement of credit delivery
systems
for the poor.
While it is true to say that in the
nineties
economics, finance and trade occupy centre
space,
it must at the same time be remembered
that the
economy exists to serve the people and to
meet
their basic needs. We cannot lose sight of
wider
ethical issues and concerns such as equity
and the
environment. Gandhiji emphasised this time
and
again. Nehru's concept of mixed economy
has stood
the test of time even though the nature of
the mix
must vary with the changing needs of the
time.
However, State intervention can be
effective only
if politics recaptures the high moral
ground and
its role as a purposeful instrument of
social
change.
For generations past, it has been the
policy of
the Congress Party to work for
international peace
and harmony, for justice and equality
among people
and nations. This approach was charted by
Jawaharlal Nehru, and evolved by Indira
Gandhi and
Rajiv Gandhi. Congress party policies gave
the
world Non-alignment,opposition to nuclear
weapons
and a voice to hundreds of millions the
world over
fighting for their liberation. We cannot
allow
such a great legacy to be squandered.
Our foreign Policy framework created by
Jawaharlal
Nehru , nurtured and strengthened by
Indira Gandhi
and Rajiv Gandhi has stood the test of
time It is
a tribute to his foresight and wisdom that
a broad
consensus on foreign policy issues has
existed for
the past 50 years with some satisfaction.
But
there is great change and movement around
us. we
have to learn from the experience of the
past and
apply it to the emerging future. Nothing
remains
still, nothing remains unchanging. That
goes for
us too. The Congress Party will adapt to
the needs
of the future.
Yet, even as we do so, we must never
forget why we
are here, why we are assembled and why we
exist as
a Party. And that is to serve the people
of our
great country and t fulfil their dreams.
We will
be able to do this only as a united,
rejuvenated
and invigorated Congress Party.
As Rajiv Gandhi said :
"As we build today
so will be the tomorrow.
Together we will build
for an India
of the 21st century.
Together we will transform
What needs transformation.
Together we will face
challenges and obstacles
to progress.
Together we will create
an India that is strong, wise
and great -
a flame of peace and tolerance."
