Crisis Averted
The US Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown with the passage of a bipartisan funding bill, but the process laid bare the persistent challenges of governance in an era of heightened partisanship and external influences.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi was on Sunday given the authorisation to constitute the Congress Working Committee (CWC). The decision to grant authorisation to the 47-year-old Gandhi scion was taken on the second and final day of the Congress plenary currently underway in New Delhi.
Party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad who presided over the decision making process said that an election to the CWC, the apex decision-making body of the party, has been held only about a dozen times in the over 100 year history of the party.
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The authorisation marks the completion of the generational change at the highest level of the Congress at the plenary whose theme is ‘Waqt hai badlav ka’ (It’s time for change).
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Gandhi has said that the new CWC would be a mix of old and young blood. In his address to the plenary, Gandhi said that the Congress will take both young and old leaders together to embrace change without forgetting the past.
“If the youth will take the Congress forward, the party will not move forward without its experienced leaders. So my task is to unite the seniors and the youth, to give a new direction,” he had said.
Many of the top leaders from the party, including former president Sonia Gandhi, have addressed the 84th plenary session which began at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Saturday.
Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former finance minister P Chidambaram and others attacked the ruling BJP-led NDA alliance at the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ignoring the economic policies of the UPA government and unleash politics of polarisation in the society.
Prominent leaders such as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina and Communist Party of China were among those who congratulated Rahul Gandhi and the Congress for the plenary. They also expressed hope that the party will be able to take forward relations between India and their respective nations.
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