Hours after senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal criticised the party leadership over various issues including the handling of the internal conflict in the party in Punjab, members of the Congress party protested against him. The party workers have accused him of allying with BJP for his statements earlier today at a press conference.
Congress workers from Chandi Chowk gathered outside Kapil Sibal’s house in large numbers in the evening to protest against him. They were carrying placards saying ‘get well soon Kapil Sibal’. The protesters said that the party made him cabinet minister, gave him important roles, but he has done nothing for the party. They alleged that Sibal does not talk to ordinary party workers, and he has no contact with voters.
“He is not talking about reforms, but he is doing dalali of BJP”, said an angry Congress worker at the protest. He alleged that Kapil Sibal leaks messages sent by Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to Amit Shah.
Congress leader Ajay Maken has also slammed Kapil Sibal for his remarks. He said that Everyone in the party is being heard. Ajay Maken said that Sonia Gandhi had ensured that Kapil Sibal becomes a minister in Union Cabinet despite not having organizational background. He advised Sibal and the G-23 Congress leaders that they shouldn’t degrade the organization that gave them an identity.
Congress workers protested against their own party leader Kapil Sibal after he had said that the G-23 group within the Congress party is not Ji Huzoor 23, implying they will continue to question the party leadership. Criticising the delay in appointing a full time party president, Sibal had said, “In our party, there is no president. So we don’t know who is taking these decisions. We know and yet we don’t know.”
He had said that he and other G-23 leaders will not leave the party but want to strengthen it. Kapil Sibal was one of the 23 Congress leaders who had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi questioning the way the party was being led. “I am speaking on behalf of my personal capacity and like-minded people who had written the letter last year. I stand here with a heavy heart. I am a part of a party that has a glorifying past. I can’t see the situation it is at the moment,” Sibal said in the press conference today.
Sibal had said that absence of a leader in the party has led to the problems it is facing in Punjab and elsewhere. “There is no president. The demand is growing to call CWC to have some dialogue,” he said. Sibal had also said that the unstable situation in Punjab is worrying from the national security point of view, as the state borders Pakistan. “What’s happening in Punjab, which is just 300 kilometres away from Pakistan border, and we know of the situation which has transpired in the state with regards to insurgency and the ISI,” he said.
