‘No Time for Aimless Introspection’: Khurshid Slams Sibal

Leaders who bite nails when the party underperforms may have “no nails to bite” for future, Khurshid commented. 

(Photo: The Quint)

A day after senior Congress leader and notable Supreme Court lawyer Kapil Sibal expressed dismay over the grand old party being in a state of ‘decline’, Salman Khurshid, Sibal’s colleague both in the party and in the courts, remarked that leaders who take victories for granted, but bite their nails when it underperforms may have “little of the nails left for future disappointments.”

The comments from leaders come at a time when the Congress has faced criticism over its dismal show in recent elections and by-elections. Out of 70 seats contested by it in Bihar, the Congress could win only 19.

In an interview to The Indian Express, Sibal had said that the Congress party has refused to recognise the answers to the problems it finds itself in, while adding that the party was “in a sorry state of affairs” that has lead to its ‘decline.’

Khurshid Leans on Bahadur Shah Zafar

This was followed by a long Facebook post by Khurshid on Tuesday, 17 November, in which he remined party colleagues who suffer from ‘periodic pangs of anxiety’ of a particular quote of Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last Mughal Emperor in India.

“When I was ignorant about my own self, I kept on finding faults in other people. When I looked at my own mistakes, then in my view nobody seemed to be evil.”

Khurshid quoted Bahadur Shah Zafar in Facebook Post.

No Time for Aimless Introspection: Khurshid

Khurshid, who maintained that everyone in the Congress was “perplexed and pained” by the party’s successive electoral defeats, added that if the mood of the masses who elect governments is “resistant to the liberal values” espoused by the party, then party workers must brace for a long struggle, rather than “looking for short cuts to get back into power.”

Interestingly, Sibal in his interview to The Indian Express had said that the time for introspection was already over and that the party needed to start a conversation of “experienced hands and minds” who understand political realities.

Khurshid, on on the other hand, warned against what he called was “aimless introspection.”

“So the constant refrain of some persons should not be of aimless introspection but for reaffirmation of fundamental principles we believe in. If we are explicitly or implicitly willing to compromise with our principles to regain power we might as well pack up our bags.”

Salman Khurshid

Admitting that political strategies too call for “re-appraisal and re-writing” from time to time, Khurshid said that such efforts should not be done in the media as it will allow the party’s “adversaries to checkmate it promptly.”

"I don’t think that we should be discussing anything outside the party forums. Don’t think we should be playing to the people outside. There's serious work that has to be done. People like me have no worry about our future as we feel comfortable in our party", Khurshid further said to news agency ANI.