NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday formed a consultative group led by former prime minister Manmohan Singh saying the group would meet daily to discuss matters of current concern and formulate party’s viewpoint on various issues.
The 11-member group will also consist of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Congress media head Randeep Surjewala, AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal, former ministers P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh and Manish Tewari besides younger Congress spokespersons Gaurav Vallabh and Supriya Shrinate.
The constitution of the group comes alongside the Congress Party’s overdrive of press briefings on issues arising out of COVID 19.
Congress leaders have been holding daily virtual briefings using Zoom application which the Government recently called unsafe advising caution.
Two days ago, Rahul Gandhi addressed a press meet through Zoom saying lockdown was not going to defeat COVID and was only going to press the pause button. He advocated aggressive testing as the main weapon.
Since the announcement of Janata Curfew on March 22, followed by a 21-day lockdown from March 24, Congress leaders have routinely engaged on COVID-related issues with Sonia Gandhi writing three letters to the PM on various issues arising from the pandemic.
Rahul Gandhi has been regularly tweeting.
AICC General Secretary Priyanka Vadra has written twice to the UP Chief Minister seeking welfare of migrants and the vulnerable.
With political activity grounded due to lockdown, the Congress believes it needs to get aggressive when raising people’s concerns around COVID shutdown.
CMs of Congress-ruled states have addressed press meets to flag their levels of combat with the virus while raising gaps in financial matters which they say are hampering preparedness.
With PM Narendra Modi directly engaging the people through his repeat addresses to the nation, the Congress thinks it must stay in circulation and people’s minds at this critical time when the PM obviously has a clear edge having led the people to do what he wanted
—from beating utensils and lighting diyas to staying home.
The consultative group primarily seeks to sustain the Congress media outreach on COVID.