Bangalore
Date : 18.6.2013
Sri M.U.Rajashekaran, MLC
Hon’ble CWC Member
20/1, Kanakapura Road,
Basavangudi, Bangalore – 560 004
Tel : 26576763 / 9448080337/9449001501
Sub: Your letter to Smt.Sonia Gandhi on the working of the Karnataka Congress
government – reg:
Dear respected Sri.M.Rajashekaran ji,
I am glad to write to you on a news item I read in the today’s newspaper on your suggestion/writing to Smt.Sonia Gandhi to appoint a committee of senior Congress leaders to oversee/advise the state government. I am of course not clear about the contents of your suggestions to Smt Gandhi. I assume that you desire that the state government headed by hon’ble Sri Siddaramiah needs some guidance by senior Congress leaders.
Why I chose to write to you on the subject is that I am a Congressman from 1962 onwards and I had remained a Congressman with no break whatever!
So, I thought I have a moral claim to speak for the Congress traditions, its values and its present state of affairs. I worked with Kamaraj and Atulya Ghosh and others at the AICC. I worked at the AICC under Kamaraj and Atulya Ghosh and later I was elected to the Madras Legislative Council in 1768.
Besides I had grown up under the shadow of Pandit Nehru and K.Kamaraj with whom I worked closely during his time as the Congress President as well as after his defeat in 1967 till his last days. I had also the good fortune to know to some extent your late leader Sri S.Nijalingappa. I had the opportunity to meet him once or twice, once when he came to Coimbatore and we, as Congressmen met him and shared ideas when he was hosted for a dinner by a local Congress leader.
Now, why I write is to share with you not my concern but the concerns of all loyal, long-time Congressmen and women, long-time Congress families about the way the Congress party had become under the dispensation in New Delhi. I have attached herewith a letter just now I had written to Sri Era Sezhiyan, former DMK MP, the reputed Parliamentarian and later long-time associate of the late Sri Ramakrishna Hegde, Jayaprakash Narayan and other leaders.
Sri Sezhiyan has raised many questions about how Parliamentary Democracy had been thrown to winds under Dr.Singh and Sonia dispensation. The matter is of course a big topic. Today, we have a very disturbing trend of deterioration in the conduct of many senior leaders. The recent Cabinet reshuffle shows; it is a hopeless exercise, a very limping set of old and tired faces who don’t inspire any confidence about their capabilities.
Will the Congress really come to power again this time?
Only astrologers can predict the outcome. People are fed up with the corruption and have great doubts about the Congress promising any real change. I am an optimist and I hope things can be turned around and I don’t say this expecting any rewards, as any office or jobs!
Even without any expectations I would be doing what I am doing in the things I do right now!
I am committed to India as a nation, as a people and I have a well-defined world view for India in the modern world. These are the values that drive me and I am coming to you as a soul-mate and a co-worker in the larger cause!
What future for the Congress?
I want to bring to your kind attention how the loyal and committed Congress insiders, have a duty to perform in the long tradition of the Congress movement. What future for the Congress party? Will it remain an all India party?
The states are no longer conducive for the Congress politics!
The more we become isolated from the people, from the grassroots, the more the regional parties and movements would only gather strength. See what is happening in all major states?
In all traditional bastions of the Congress, from UP, Bihar, W.Bengal and other states and in the South from TN and why, even in Karnataka, non-Congress parties are only gaining ground. Also, within the Congress, as it is, there is no ideological core, no moral commitment for democratic values, no inner party democracy, we promote blatantly dynastic politics. See the pathetic manner in which the Prime Minister talks about Rahul Gandhi!
Is this warranted? Is this conducive to even Rahul Gandhi’s prospects or his capabilities?
We can’t take the people for granted. Anna Hazare and other civil society movements can’t be dismissed in the way; the Congress seems to be doing.
I foresee some more radical changes might upset the cosy assumptions and existence of the Congress setup as it is. Anyway, I want to share with you some of my misgivings. The letter I have herewith written to the veteran Parliamentarian Sr.Era Sezhiyan also shares some more deeper misgivings. We have to see that we help and build the great Congress tradition of high political values instilled in us by Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru. Their ceaseless work only helped India to inherit a democratic and Constitutional traditions. A robust belief in nurturing Parliamentary democracy, a belief in the innate good sense of the mass of the people etc.
Unfortunately, we somehow gave up one by one our guidance for good governance and most of the current ministers, not to speak of others in the party and in Parliament are all “outsiders”, why rank outsiders!
Most of them have no people’s contacts. Most of them blatant operators, even corrupt and criminal elements. In such a scenario, we, as committed Congressmen must desist from spoiling the old values. Let the elected Chief Ministers be given full freedom and autonomy to do their jobs. Already there are serious distortions in the way the state governments are functioning, Governors and High Command and others are creating distortions.
I hope you would give some deep thought and do some introspection on what I dared to bring to your kind attention.
With warm regards,
Yours sincerely,
V.Isvarmurti
Chairman & Managing Director