Congress to 'educate' leaders in Rajasthan

Congressmen in Rajasthan will soon be going back to "school" to learn the history, ideology and ethos of their party. The role of teachers will be played by union ministers, senior party leaders and experts from diverse fields.

A series of lectures would be organised for senior party workers from the state, to brush up their knowledge of the Congress and to acquaint them with the policies and programmes of the UPA government at the Centre.

Depending on its success, similar "training programmes" would be organised for Congressmen in other parts of the country, according to senior party leaders.

As per the "syllabus" being worked out by AICC General Secretary Mukul Vasnik and Secretary Praveen Davar, the first part of the training session would be devoted to the party's history before and after Independence.

The next chapter would focus on the achievements of successive Congress governments at the Centre, right from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru.

Besides, the Congressmen would also be given lectures on the Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The UPA government's foreign policy and economic reforms would also form part of the "syllabus". And, of course, the concluding chapter would be about the failures of the present BJP regime in Rajasthan.

Several union ministers would be roped in to deliver the lectures, said Davar, who has launched a massive public awareness programme in every district of the state ahead of the proposed training programme. The four-day programme is likely to be organised some time in February. The participants would include all party MPs and MLAs from the state, AICC members and state and district Congress committee members.

"It will be some kind of an orientation programme that would rejuvenate the partymen, as also the party. Besides, when you talk in public as a Congress leader, you should know what the party stands for and how grand a past the party has, unlike other parties," said Davar.