Reforms Achieved by ‘Sacrificing’: Salman Khurshid to G-23 Leaders

Congress leader Salman Khurshid said that Rahul Gandhi will remain ‘our leader’.

Congress leader Salman Khurshid (File Image)

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Sunday, 20 June, took a dig at some of the G-23 leaders who called for reforms in the party. He said that the reform is achieved by “sacrificing” and leaders calling for a reform must also have a discussion with others too.

In an exclusive interview to news agency PTI, Khurshid said that Rahul Gandhi will remain “our leader”, with or without being the party president.

“Reform comes when you give up what you have received…say that I need to make a sacrifice because I want some change to happen. Therefore, the first thing that I will do is to give up what I have received to make an example to people, otherwise people think you are being hypocritical…You have got something, enjoyed it, and now you want more and therefore, you are talking about reform. Reform means when everybody has to sit down.”

Salman Khurshid, Congress leader told PTI

A group of senior Congress leaders referred to as ‘G-23’ by the media had written to party president Sonia Gandhi in 2020 seeking “sweeping changes” in the party. The leaders included five former chief ministers, former Union ministers, sitting MPs Shashi Tharoor and Manish Tewari, among others.

On former law minister Marpadi Veerappa Moily calling for a “major surgery” on the party, Khurshid said that “surgery” should be done, but it must be made clear what one would lose or achieve by it.

“These wonderful phrases are not the answer, we need to get to the bottom (of the problem), we need to get to the inside, before surgery, we need to do X-rays, ultrasounds,” the former Union Minister said in the interview.

“If they mean that there should be a reshuffle and they should be given the top positions, then that is not reform or surgery. That is just saying ‘I want the job’. So, I think there should be a conversation,” he added.

Khurshid also said that the G-23 members only said that there should be elections.

“Nobody is against the election; there should be an election. It would have been very nice if they had reminded us of which election they won to get where they are. If they reminded us of that it would be easy for us to understand,” he said.

On the demand for organisational polls by the G-23 leaders, Khurshid said that it will happen, but it is not the time to collect 5,000 people and go ahead with the voting process. He cited the COVID-19 pandemic and loss of senior leaders like Ahmed Patel and Motilal Vohra as the reasons for slowing the process of not going ahead with organisational polls.