Keypoints:
- 3 separate committees have been set up by Sonia Gandhi to discuss policy issues related to economy, foreign affairs and national security.
- Manmohan Singh to be part of all three committees.
While former finance minister P Chidambaram, and party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Digvijaya Singh will be part of the economic affairs committee, Jairam Ramesh will be its convener.
Sonia Gandhi, Congress President has set up three commiittees for discussing policy issues related to economic affairs, foreign affairs and national security. It is said that the ex Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be a part of all the three panels.
Jairam Ramesh will be it’s convener, while former finance minister P Chidambaram, and party leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Digvijaya Singh will be a part of economic affairs committee.
The foreign affairs committee will have Anand Sharma, Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khurshid and Saptagiri Ulaka. The convener of the panel will be Khurshid.
The committee on national security will have leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, party leaders Veerappa Moily, Vincent H Pala and V Vaithilingam, with Pala as its convener.
An official statement from the AICC general secretary KC Venugopal said that, “The Congress president has constituted three committees to consider and discuss issues and policies related to the subjects of economic affairs, foreign affairs and national security”.
Incidentally, among those nominated in the committees include senior party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Veerappa Moily and Shashi Tharoor, who were part of the 23 letter-writers seeking an organisational overhaul of the Congress.
While Shashi Tharoor leads the party’s Professional Congress, Sharma is the Chairman of the AICC foreign affairs department.
In a separate interview, the former Finance Minister acknowledged that Congress may have contested more seats than its ‘organisational strength’ in Bihar allowed and expressed concern over bye-polls losses across several States. In a separate interview, the former Finance Minister acknowledged that the Congress may have contested more seats than its “organisational strength” in Bihar allowed, and expressed concern over the byelection losses across several States.
On Friday, in a series of tweets, he said that the “decline” in the BJP’s performance after the 2019 Lok Sabha election was “visible and significant” despite the Bihar win.
“Even after the Bihar Assembly elections, the decline in BJP’s performance after 2019 Lok Sabha elections is visible and significant. Of the 464 Assembly segments that the BJP contested both in 2019 and in subsequent Assembly polls and bypolls, the BJP has won only 218 segments. On the contrary, in 2019 the BJP had won 392 segments,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
