Non-political people have come to the Congress, so Narendra Modi’s option is not being made: Acharya Pramod Krishnam

Lucknow / New Delhi
Who is responsible for the current Congress position? Even if most of the party leaders refrain from speaking on this question. But Acharya Pramod Krishnam, senior party leader and member of Priyanka Gandhi’s advisory committee, talks openly with NBT’s National Political Editor Nadeem, saying that some non-political people have come to the Congress.

Pramod Krishnam says that the party’s decisions have been interfered with. Because of this, the option of Narendra Modi is not being prepared. Here are the highlights of the conversation:

How did the country’s oldest party, which has the most experience of governance, fall prey to indecision?
After Rahul Gandhi’s resignation, the CWC should have taken an immediate decision that a new president should be formed. But the CWC did not discharge its obligations. It was his duty to either persuade Rahul ji to withdraw his resignation or elect a new president. Not being elected president of the Congress for a year, the party suffered heavily. Senior party leaders have contributed a lot in weakening the position of Congress party. This is why the party is in a state of indecision today.

Why do Congress party leaders not want to risk moving away from the Gandhi family to elect a non-Gandhi president?
The misconception is being made that no non-Gandhi president has ever been formed in the Congress. Not once or twice, Gandhi has become president outside the family. It is also not that the Gandhi family does not want to let anyone else become the president to retain his position as the party president. If the Gandhi family had greed for power, Sonia Gandhi herself could have become the Prime Minister instead of making Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh the Prime Minister.

Let’s accept your point that the Gandhi family is not interested in the post. Nevertheless, all the leaders of the party have put their full strength to choose the president from the Gandhi family.
There are very senior leaders within the Congress party, but over the days, the interference of some leaders who are not aware of the ground reality has increased. Some non-political people have come new, they have interfered in the decisions of the Congress Party, it is not being able to create an alternative to Narendra Modi.

It also seems that the Congress high command did not learn any lesson from the developments in Jyotiraditya Scindia in Madhya Pradesh. Not everything is being said in Congress ruled Rajasthan, Punjab and Chhattisgarh …
Why can Scindia betray him? As far as Sachin Pilot is concerned, I think he has been unfair. In the 2018 assembly elections, the state in which the Congress was the state president, he was made the CM after the party got a majority, except in Rajasthan, where Sachin Pilot was the president. Sachin should have become CM. He used to feel despondent, his pain is in his mind. I think that by the grace of God, he will soon become the CM of Rajasthan.

Is it possible that Ashok Gehlot is shifted to Delhi and Sachin Pilot be made CM?
Ashok Gehlot is a very senior leader. The 23 leaders who wrote letters questioning the leadership also respect him a lot. If Rahul Gandhi ji does not become president and Priyanka Gandhi ji is also not made president, then Ashok Gehlot ji should be made the president.

Three camps are talked about within the Congress, which camp is your reverence?
I am associated with the core ideology of the Congress, which is the ideology of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

Harish Rawat has raised the demand that the party should go to the electoral arena by declaring the face of CM in Uttarakhand, but his demand has been rejected. What is your opinion on this?
I agree with Harish Rawat. In today’s era, the public wants to know who the groom is. The Congress party should declare its CM’s face in every state.

You have advised about UP that the party should give the candidate of Brahmin CM there, what is the mathematics behind it?
All of them believe that Brahmins are in an effective role in UP politics. The last Brahmin CM in UP was Narayan Dutt Tiwari. After that, 31 years have passed, there has been no Brahmin CM. Meanwhile, BJP also formed governments there. But he too did not make any Brahmin chief minister. Even in 2022, Yogi, Akhilesh and Mayawati are the faces of the CM, so I felt that the Congress should respect the will of the Brahmins.

But did the Congress change its decision after declaring Sheila Dixit as the face in the 2017 elections in UP?
The Congress suffered a lot from that decision. The Brahmin society was joining the Congress in the name of Sheila Dixit. But when the party accepted Akhilesh Yadav as its face, the Brahmin voted neither Congress nor Samajwadi Party, but went to BJP.