New Delhi: As differences between the old guard and team Rahul deepens, Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi on Friday said that partymen have been advised to refrain from giving advice to the leadership through media.
Dwivedi's stringent remarks comes at a time when many senior Congress leaders have questioned Rahul Gandhi and his coterie. After humiliating defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the grand old party Congress has been facing a battle between the old guard and the new generation over the leadership of Rahul.
The signs of the deepening conflict came to the fore when Congress leader Janardhan Dwivedi recently said that people in politics should not continue in active posts beyond 70 years of age.
Dwivedi, who will be 69 next month and feels marginalised in the party, told reporters that 65 or 70 should be the age for people to go out of active posts and take up other roles instead.
Reflecting the deepening chasm between the old guard and team Rahul, a group of young Congress Secretaries on Thursday attacked senior leaders going public with "negative" comments damaging the party's image.
The young leaders said in a letter handed over to Dwivedi. "We, the undersigned, have been observing and feeling very strongly that, of late, there comes a statement from different rungs of Congressmen which is not in the interest of the party.”
"If there is any concern it should be expressed in a very dignified manner and at an appropriate place within the party forum.....But surely not in the way which has been by some of our respected senior Congressmen.”
"It should also be noted that these are the very leaders who are expressing their views in public in recent times themselves have been part and parcel of the party's highest decision making body," the young leaders said in a letter handed over to Dwivedi.
The letter does not name any leader in person but it was apparently aimed at number of leaders, who have criticised Rahul and his team's strategy during the polls. The latest instance was of Digvijay Singh, who said that Rahul's silence on critical issues had contributed to their loss in the "war of perception".
Most of these secretaries were picked up by Rahul and their grouping is an attempt to insulate the Congress Vice President from the attack from the old guard, which seems to be on their way out in the proposed massive restructuring of the party.
Even Rahul on Thursday acknowledged the increasing divide within the Congress saying that the party will deal with such 'tensions'.
Rahul admitted that there have been rising voices within the Congress. The Congress vice president said, “Congress is an old organisation and there are multiple voices within it, such voices will bring solutions to the party.”
“There are always tensions, we will deal with it,” Rahul asserted.
