By IANS,
New Delhi : The Congress is awaiting the return of party president Sonia Gandhi, likely this week-end, to give final shape to its future strategy following the political upheaval triggered by social activist Anna Hazare’s fast, party leaders said.
“Soniaji (Sonia Gandhi) may not be actively involved in politics in the first few months after her return. But she can give general guidelines and boost the morale of the party leaders and cadres,” a senior Congress leader, who preferred to be unidentified, told IANS Monday.
He said that Gandhi, who is abroad since Aug 4 for surgery, was updated about the Hazare fast and the negotiations in the final days of the agitation.
While the party has heaved a sigh of relief over the ending of the fast, many leaders feel that Hazare is a “potential threat” to the party’s future prospects.
They feel the middle-class, which had generally supported the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) in the past two Lok Sabha polls, was drifting away from the ruling front under the influence of the anti-corruption campaign unleashed by Hazare.
The party and the government adopted a “blow hot and blow cold” policy towards Hazare – adopting an administrative action plan by arresting Hazare Aug 16 and a party spokesman calling the veteran activist “corrupt from tip to toe” but later releasing him Aug 18 and opening talks, then conducting a parliamentary discussion and adopting a sense of house resolution broadly agreeing to many of Hazare’s proposals on the Lokpal bill.
While most of the Congress MPs and other leaders agreed to the “political method” of handling the popular agitation, there are some leaders who still are not convinced about the government actions, party sources said.
Several MPs felt that the surprise speech by Rahul Gandhi and the involvement of the ‘Rahul brigade’ MPs like Sandeep Dikshit in the talks was a good initiative in the absence of Sonia Gandhi.
However, the simmering discontent among some leaders continue, as voiced by Bareily MP Praveen Singh Aron Monday. “The handling of the issue was inappropriate. I want an internal probe whether it was deliberate,” he told reporters here.
Party circles say most of the leaders appear optimistic that the mass appeal of the Hazare movement will fade in the course of time. As Law Minister Salman Khurshid, one of the negotiators, told media Sunday: “We might have made errors of judgment. We may have lost ground somewhere, but we are determined to get that ground back.”