Congress to integrate social media, research and data analysis units under communication department: Maken

The Congress has decided that its communications department should be powerful, taking control of social media, research and data analysis units, Ajay Maken, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, has said.

He emphasised that at the moment, several departments including the research, data analysis and communication departments were working in silos.

Speaking to National Herald, Maken said it has also been decided that the communications department would be linked with the states.

In the states also there would be a similar set-up, with a general secretary for communications. They would be appointed in consultation with the AICC general secretary for communications.

Elaborating on the structural changes which were decided upon after the three-day Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir held recently at Rajasthan’s Udaipur, Maken explained that they were not simply going to replace one person with the other. New departments will be created – public insight department, for instance, will conduct regular surveys on what the public thinks on many issues.

Maken pointed out that though the party had discussed the setting up of a National Training Institute at the Chintan Shivir held in Shimla in 2003, it was not taken forward. “This time, however, we have decided to begin in Kerala. Leaders will be sent there for training,” added Maken.

Congress had also announced at the Chintan Shivir in Udaipur that the party would create mandal committees below booth committees in states. It was only Kerala which had mandal committees and which is now creating an even smaller unit, called the Congress unit committee, which would comprise 25-30 homes.

“We have decided that we will appoint one person for every Lok Sabha seat and one person for every Vidhan Sabha seat who is specially designated to ensure the identification of Congressmen in their region. We feel we have enough Congressmen in every booth and they just need to be identified. Even in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar or even in Delhi, if we are able to identify the Congressmen, we will be able to rebuild the organisation. It is not difficult,” added Maken.

At the Udaipur Chintan Shivir, it was announced that 50% individuals in every committee would be those who are younger than 50 years and that no person will hold a post of more than five years.

Maken said in order to make the organisation young, they had two choices – one was to fix a retirement age limit, which the BJP somehow implements. “The other way was to have 50% reservation for those below 50 years of age in all our committees. We felt that the second option was much better; if we fixed a retirement age then everyone would be between the age group of 50-75,” he said.

“We felt this was the best way to make use of our senior people to train our younger people. It would be from the CWC level onwards. All these changes will start from our organisational elections beginning in June,” added Maken.

After the Chintan Shivir, the general secretaries met in Delhi and it was decided that the party would hold state-level workshops on June 1, 2 to implement the Chintan Shivir declarations.

“After that, on June 11-14, we will have district-level workshops to inform Congressmen and sensitise them about the resolutions made at Chintan Shivir. Through this process, we will be able to find out who has completed five years on one post. All those holding a post for more than five years will resign. This will change the way in which the organisation functions,” remarked Maken.

The Congress has adopted the ‘Bharat Jodo’ slogan to connect the people of India amid growing tensions in the country. ‘Jodo, Jodo, Bharat Jodo’ was coined by freedom fighter and Gandhian Subba Rao.

Batting for the country’s unity, Maken said Congress will not let the country break. “India is not just a landmass. Price rise and employment are the real issues. We will inform the people. People are now enjoying the fruits of the policies and development that Congress put in place. As soon as that quota is over, the citizens will start realising the mess they have landed themselves in,” ended Maken somberly.