Instead of listening, Congress turned its back on us: Kapil Sibal

Sibal was one of the 23 leaders who wrote to the Congress chief, calling for organisational reforms and demanding "active, full-time and visible" party president

Accepting Congress's flaws and defeat in the Bihar election, former Union Minister and Congress leader Kapil Sibal admitted that the leadership crisis in the party remained unresolved and there was a lack of effort to initiate dialogue to resolve it.

In August, Sibal was one of the 23 leaders who wrote to the Congress chief, calling for organisational reforms and demanding an "active, full-time and visible" party president.

Mulling on Congress's performance in the Lok Sabha elections, the recent bypolls and the Assembly elections, Sibal, in an interview with The Indian Express, said, "The writing is on the wall...We know what is wrong with the Congress. .. The Congress party itself knows all the answers. But they are not willing to recognise those answers. If they do not recognise those answers, then the graph will continue to decline."

On being asked about the letter and what the party has done to resolve that dissatisfaction, Sibal said, "There has been no dialogue and there seems to be no effort for a dialogue by the leadership and since there is no forum to express my views, I am constrained to express them publicly."

"Some of us put our pen to paper and said what should be done in the Congress on the road ahead. Instead of listening to us they turned their back on us. The results are for all to see," he said.

He added that the Congress needed to discover itself and the Congress Working Committee should inculcate a democratic system of appointment rather than nominations as nominated members would not question the work and performance of the party the way democratically elected ones would do.

"If we are not able to recognise our shortcomings, then even the electoral process will not lead to the desired results. The culture of nominations must go. Elections through nominations will not lead to the desired results," he said.

Underlining the lack of response from the Congress leadership over their performance in the Bihar election and state bypolls, Sibal said that the Congress had failed to be an "effective alternative". "I don’t say introspection because that time is over... Maybe they (Congress) think all is well and that it should be business as usual," he added.