The Hindu : Congress CMs' conclave to focus on good governance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 12, 2002

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Congress CMs' conclave to focus on good governance

By Javed M. Ansari

GUWAHATI APRIL 11. The two-day conclave of the Congress Chief Ministers beginning here tomorrow promises to be an intensive exercise between the central leadership of the party and its Chief Ministers. The focus at the conclave will be on good governance and implementation of the promises made in the manifesto, especially on issues concerning the weaker sections, women, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and the minorities.

This is the third conference of its kind. Apart from the party president, Sonia Gandhi, it will involve all the 14 Chief Ministers of the Congress-ruled States, all the six general secretaries, senior leaders from the parliamentary wing such Shivraj Patil and Pranab Mukherjee, and other senior leaders involved with policy planning in the party such as Jairam Ramesh and Salman Khursheed. The AICC has invited leaders such as Madhavsinh Solanki to participate in the deliberations on programmes for weaker sections and poverty alleviation. Manmohan Singh has been unable to make it to Guwahati because of his illness. Mani Shankar Aiyer and Ramesh Chennithala, the two AICC secretaries with independent charge, will also take part.

The first exercise of this kind was held in November 2000 and the second meeting of the Congress Chief Ministers took place in June 2001. Significantly, this is the first time that a Chief Ministers' conference is being held out of Delhi. This is the second time that Guwahati is the venue of an important Congress political exercise, the first being the famous AICC session of 1975.

Apart from the symbolic value of holding such an important meeting of all the Congress Chief Ministers in the North-East, a region where the party is ruling in four States, it is also an attempt to engage in some serious stock-taking. The attempt clearly is not only to showcase its 14 State Governments but also ensure that the Cong.-ruled States stand out in comparison. The leadership is actually aware of the danger of its State Governments becoming victims of the anti-incumbency syndrome, and it hopes to offset that by ensuring that they perform and deliver on their promises.

The meeting will not merely take stock of the accomplishments of the State Governments and the extent to which the promises made in the manifesto have been implemented. The idea clearly is to ensure that the Congress is viewed as being ``both responsible and responsive in Government''. The meeting is expected to prepare a bold agenda, which the Congress Governments will be expected to implement in their States. The two-day conference begins with an address by the Congress president.

The meeting has been divided into segments, and each segment will see different Chief Ministers make presentations on subjects such as rural development, decentralisation, education and health, weaker sections, poverty alleviation and good governance, with the focus on transparency, accountability and integrity, employment programmes, projection of programmes and political mobilisation.

Ms. Gandhi will initiate the discussion on good governance. She is expected to use the opportunity to once again emphasise the need for utmost transparency, integrity and accountability on the part of the State Governments. The Congress leadership is deeply concerned about the developments in Gujarat and the heightened communal tension in the country. The Chief Ministers will be asked to be on guard against attempts to engineer trouble in their States.

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