Amid the ongoing turmoil in the Punjab unit of the party, veteran Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday asked the party high command to convene a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) immediately to elect a ‘Congress President’ and a new CWC to strengthen the organisation.

“There is no elected Congress President at this moment. Who is taking decisions in Congress… We know and… yet we do not know,” Sibal said while reacting to the developments in the Punjab Congress.
Hitting out at the Congress high command for taking decisions in an ”autocratic” way, he quoted Mahatma Gandhi to say, “Democracy cannot be worked by 20 men sitting at the centre, it has to be worked from below by the people of every village”.

He, however, refused to comment on the recent decisions taken by party high command like removing Capt Amarinder Singh as chief minister and naming Navjot Singh Sidhu as president of the Punjab unit. Sidhu resigned yesterday protesting against some of the decisions taken by the new Charanjit Singh Channi government. These matters should only be discussed in the CWC or in a closed-door meeting, Sibal said.
“We should listen to the people, strengthen the party. Remember what has happened in Punjab is not because of us. We need an open dialogue, open conversation… we need to understand each other’s point of view,” he said.

The Congress leader, who along with several other senior Congress leaders has been demanding CWC elections for more than a year, said there should be room for all schools of thought. “The party should understand the opponents’ point of view… if it cannot accept it, at least respect it… allow us to have a dialogue… There should be no monopoly in the power structure of any party,” the Congress leader said.

He further said that it was time for the party to introspect why senior leaders were leaving the Congress. “Those who were very close to the Congress High Command are leaving the party and we, who are not against the party, are waiting for a dialogue…we have been waiting for a long time, but there should be a limit to the wait,” he added.

Sibal said, “We are not against the party. We need an open dialogue, open conversation… we need to understand each other’s point of view,” he said. The PCC should be given a free hand, and the DCC should not be decided at the centre.

“I cannot see my party in a situation where it is today. It breaks my heart,” Sibal said, calling upon all Congress workers to fight against the BJP government at the centre. “Our senior leaders are leaving us”, he pointed out while naming a few of them including Sushmita Dev, Former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro, former ministers Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasada and former Kerala PCC chief V M Sudheeran.