Days After Criticizing Party Leadership, Indian National Congress Removes Sanjay Jha As Official Spokesperson

The Indian National Congress on Wednesday removed Sanjay Jha as the All India Congress Committee's (AICC) spokesperson with immediate effect, following the article he wrote for a newspaper criticizing the party.

Along with Jha's termination, the official statement released by the party also approved the appointment of Abhishek Dutt and Sadhna Bharti as national media panellists for the Congress.

Jha had written an opinion piece for Times Of India on June 7, about the leadership issues that prevail in the party, the laid-back attitude towards its own up-gradation and lack of any sense of urgency in the party.

"It is baffling to see the party 'demonstrating extraordinary lassitude' towards its own political obsolescence," the article read.

The party has been at the receiving end of dreadful negativity for so long that its inability to set the agenda and seize the narrative is creating serious damage to its credibility, it read.

"There are many in the party who cannot comprehend this perceptible listlessness. For someone like me, for instance, permanently wedded to Gandhian philosophy and Nehruvian outlook that defines the Congress, it is dismaying to see its painful disintegration."

He also quoted the claim that stated the existence of an internal mechanism within the party used for a frank exchange of ideas, as false.

"It is a false claim that there exists a robust internal democratic process that listens to individual voices, and more importantly, is continuously focused on party renewal, political strategy, tactical warfare, leadership development and resuscitation starting at the grassroots, the erstwhile USP of the Congress."

Jha had also differed with the party's opinion about Indo-China tensions.

"This is a time for great mature political consensus within India in responding to China's dangerous aggression," he tweeted on Wednesday. "I don't care if Mr Modi made several outrageous rhetorical comments against our Congress/UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government in the past. We must rise. Let's be different. Let's be one."

Issuing his first response after being sacked from the post, Jha in a tweet on Thursday said that his criticism over drifting values of the party only portrays him as a committed, fearless and ideological soldier of the INC.

He also recalled former PM and Congress president Jawaharlal Nehru, saying that he had once written a scathing advisory to himself under a pseudonym, warning against becoming autocratic.

Many senior journalists, columnists, and netizens on Twitter strongly condemned the move, describing it as a big loss to the party itself.

Some said that removing educated and articulated people like him for mere 'ego' is a poor move.

Many quoted that the party has been constantly making mistakes. The party lessens the probability of succeeding in future, if it continues to remove people who are primarily addressing the issues that are prevailing within.

Jha has served as the party's spokesperson since 2013, and has represented INC in several TV debates and panel discussions.

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