By IANS,
New Delhi: Defending its circular asking party leaders to speak only on subjects concerning them, the Congress Wednesday said that the communication was not individual-specific and the party did not want to discuss “routine organisational matters” with the media.
“Every organization functions in a particular manner. If a circular reminds people that they have a specific responsibility and to stick to their brief, I do not find it out of place,” party spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters here.
Answering a volley of queries on the circular issued by Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi earlier this week asking party office-bearers to speak to journalists only on subjects concerning their areas of responsibility, Tewari said the party does not discuss organizational matters in front of the media.
Asked if the circular had been issued in view of the party general secretary Digvijay Singh defending his earlier criticism of Home Minister P. Chidambaram over the government’s anti-Maoist campaign, Tewari said any organizational circular “was not specific to any individual”.
“Everybody is assigned a specific responsibility. If, in the internal process, AICC (All India Congress Committee) flags it for attention, there is nothing inappropriate about it,” he said, adding that the party has an institutional processes of addressing issues.
He said there were platforms in the party where robust discussion takes place on various issues and there were structures in place for putting across the official view.
Asked if the circular was against freedom of speech, internal democracy and the spirit of right to information, the spokesman said every party has functional dynamics. “Democracy does not mean anarchy. There is a collective and differentiated responsibility,” he said.
Tewari said that there were various internal ways available to national leaders to bring to attention their views on specific issues and the process goes on all the time.
There have been several occasions in the past few months when the Congress asked its leaders not to speak out of turn and to discuss contentious issues in party forums.
Apart from the newspaper article by Digvijay Singh in which he raised questions over Chidambaram’s anti-Maoist campaign, the party has faced questions over tweets of former junior external affairs minister Shashi Tharoor and an open letter written by Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken asking young MPs to oppose caste-based census.