PART II
IDEOLOGY & COMMITMENT
17. The Congress : Its Ideology, Objectives and Tasks
THE EDITOR HAS asked me to write about the "New Congress". I think it is better to understand what is meant by that term. In fact, I would not call it a New Congress. It is the same time-honoured Congress which was in the forefront of freedom struggle for several decades. It is the same Congress which, after independence, became an instrument of change and tried to bring about freedom from economic and social bondage. It is the same Congress which has been the single stabilising factor in our young democracy and has firmly set in the soil the grass roots of democratic governments and institutions at various levels.
This Congress is the real Congress. Its basic and unswerving faith lies in the three precepts of secularism, democracy and socialism. There is the same commitment, zeal, impatience, youthful energy and dedication as were characteristic of the Congress during the freedom struggle. Some of these values got eroded during the period after independence. It will have to be admitted that some inertia and complacency had set in. The rebirth of the Congress captured these lost values. And that is the new significant factor. There is a new awareness and realism in both the leadership and the rank and file of the Congress. There is new youthfulness, a fresh breeze of new thinking, new dynamism and a new dedication. There is also a keen consciousness that there are promises to keep and unfinished tasks to be taken in hand. A new pragmatism, self-introspection, emergence of programmatic thinking and emphasis on implementation are the distinguishing features of the new Congress.
After saying this, it is necessary to analyse some of the pressing tasks before the party in the new setting. The split in the Congress and the inevitable process of radicalisation which has set in would be meaningless and futile if the New Congress fails to give a lead and achieve something concrete in terms of the well-being of the common man, small farmer, landless labourer and industrial worker. A step was taken in this direction at the Bombay Session of AICC by giving a time-bound programme of action to the party and the country.