Cong vs Cong: Khurshid calls Sibal Doubting Thomas
November 17, 2020 17:43
Amid questions being raised by some Congressmen over the party's Bihar poll performance, senior leader Salman Khurshid on Tuesday took a dig at such party colleagues calling them "doubting Thomases" who suffer periodic "pangs of anxiety".
In a Facebook post that started with an Urdu couplet of Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar, former union minister Khurshid, who is among the leaders considered close to the Gandhi family, said if the mood of the electorate is resistant to the liberal values the party has espoused and cherished, it should be prepared for a long struggle rather than look for short cuts to get back into power.
Citing the last Mughal ruler's couplet which talks about looking within for flaws that would make one not see others as flawed, he said Bahadur Shah Zafar's words might be a useful companion for many of our party colleagues who suffer "periodic pangs of anxiety".
Some senior Congress leaders including Kapil Sibal have called for introspection after the party's dismal performance in the recently held Bihar assembly polls, after which the ruling NDA returned to power in the state despite the main member of the grand opposition alliance, Rashtriya Janata Dal, putting up a strong show and emerging as the single largest party.
Quite a few leaders from the RJD as well as the Congress have blamed the grand old party's below-par performance for the opposition alliance missing the majority mark in the Bihar assembly elections.
Tariq Anwar, party's general secretary and a veteran leader from Bihar, had earlier this week acknowledged that there were shortcomings due to which the Congress performed worse than other 'Mahagathbandhan' constituents in the Bihar polls and asserted that the high command was serious about introspection as well as a thorough analysis of the results.
"When we do well, admittedly somewhat infrequently they take it for granted. But when we underperform, not even do badly, they are quick to bite their nails. By the looks of it there would be little of the nails left for future disappointments. Is it really a case of bad workmen quarreling with their tools?" Khurshid said.
Noting that everyone in the party is perplexed and pained by the continuing misfortunes of the Congress that some have chosen to describe as "our misadventures", he said there is something called faith, not necessarily blind, in destiny.
The favourite panacea of "doubting Thomases", introspection and collective leadership, might do no collateral damage but is a bit overestimated, Khurshid asserted. "Our real redemption might be found in understanding the mind of the contemporary citizen, molded by prevailing circumstances and influenced by a self-serving potion of social envy and suspicion, if not hate, fed by the ruling establishment," he said.
"If the mood of the electorate is resistant to the liberal values we have espoused and cherished we should be prepared for a long struggle rather than look for short cuts to get back into power," he said.
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