84th AICC plenary begins, to lay down future vision for Cong for next five yrs

The 84th Plenary session of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) began here on Saturday with deliberations during the meet expected to lay down the future vision of the Congress party for the next five years.

The plenary began with hoisting of the party flag by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and singing of National anthem. 

Being held at the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium , the plenary will lay down the way forward for the party and its vision for next five years. 

The session will witness deliberations by the party workers and leaders on ways to revamp the party in the run up to the forthcoming Assembly polls in various states and suggest solutions to the problems faced by the party.

Based on the deliberations and the suggestions given by the workers, the AICC Plenary will pass a series of resolutions - a Political resolution, an economic resolution, a resolution on the present state of agricultural distress and a resolution on internal security and international affairs will be passed.

The political resolution will see the party will take stock of the political situation in the country, and chalk out the Congress strategy going forward.

The resolution could also approve the idea of aligning with like-minded parties in different states in the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The political resolution will be presented for discussion and adoption on March 17.

In the economic resolution, the Congress will analyse the prevalent economic conditions in the country, and present its own view of them.

The resolution will focus on highlighting the areas where the current government has faltered, and the vision of how the Congress would work on these areas.

The party is also set to bring out a resolution on internal security, defence and external relations, in which it will take stock of India’s domestic environment as well as foreign relations, the challenges before the country, and the way forward as per the Congress ideology.

For the first time, the Congress is set to come out with a resolution on agriculture, poverty alleviation, employment, and issues pertaining to women, minorities, and SC/STs. The resolution will have sub-sections on each of these topics. 

For example, on agriculture, the party will present a vision statement on how agrarian reforms should take place in a meaningful manner. Similarly, on unemployment, the party will present a proper road map, analysing the job situation under the Modi government and how the Congress plans to tackle it.

The final resolutions passed at the Plenary session will be based on the discussions at the three day session. 

One of the major directives by Rahul, who took charge as president of the party in December last year , is that workers should occupy the centre stage more than the leaders and contribute to the fine-tuning of each and every resolution. 

''In many ways the 84th plenary session will be path breaking in that it will be a 'worker's plenary. Congress president Rahul Gandhi has said that the focus in this session should not be on individuals but on the way forward. So , for the next five years this plenary session will decide what is the way forward, what is the vision and the direction that the Congress party wants to take to sort out the problems facing the Nation,''AICC media in charge Randeep Surjewala said.

In the past, the focus remained largely on senior party leaders, and workers were invited to listen and approve resolutions prepared by senior Congress leaders in Delhi.

This time, following Gandhi’s diktat to involve the grassroots in policy-making, block and district-level party workers will get a chance to speak during the session, and suggest ideas which can be implemented, if found useful.

A pool of names of party workers have been identified based on the suggestions given by state Congress units and frontal organisations, and these workers will get a chance at the plenary to express their views on what changes they want to be made in the way the party functions and what should be the way forward.

On Saturday, the plenary will begin with opening remarks by the Congress president followed by the taking up of political resolution. 

This will be followed by the address by chairperson of the Congress parliamentary party Sonia Gandhi.

Sources said that in an effort to galvanise the party workers to take the various scams under the NDA rule and the situation on farmers' distress , the rising unemployment and other issues, the Congress will provide grass root workers with factual information highlighting the failures of the Modi government through five booklets in Hindi and English that will be distributed to all workers attending the session. 

These booklets will cover agriculture, jobs and youth, minorities and SC/STs’ issues, national security and policy, and corruption and scams.

The information would be in a simple format with five to six bullet points, highlighting and explaining all the scams and policy mismanagement under the Modi government.

State Congress units will be tasked with translating the booklets into regional languages, and distributing them among party workers to make them aware of the real issues, when they talk to the electorate within their areas.

At the session, the AICC members will also validate Gandhi’s election as Congress president.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi will address the party on the morning of 17 , the second day of the three-day plenary, with a brief outline.

Then, on March 18, he will speak at length in his concluding address.

The AICC plenary, which will be attended by Congress workers from the block and district levels , will also witness AICC members approve the election of Mr Rahul Gandhi as party president. (UNI)