The Congress victory in Karnataka shows that the propaganda against the party is all ‘bunkum’. The party’s performance was due to both the impact of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the local unit of the party, says Congress leader Salman Khurshid to Sidharth Bhatia in this podcast discussion. “And we had a new president from that state, which helped.” Khurshid says he sees great enthusiasm in party workers everywhere.
Each state will have to be tackled differently and local issues will have to be addressed. In Rajasthan, where Sachin Pilot is rebelling against the chief minister Ashok Gehlot, Khurshid says, “I knew his father, one of the nicest men in politics. Sachin needs help.”
He says he is optimistic about 2024. “The next elections could be an historic opportunity to defeat the BJP. Mathematically it is possible, but we need chemistry too.”
Khurshid, who was also the minister of state for external affairs in the Narasimha Rao government, said he felt regret about the way Indian diplomacy was going. “We have to live with China, we have to learn how China thinks.” Sitting on a swing with President Xi Jinping is not diplomacy,” he says.
