AUG 27- His own performance may be under scrutiny, but Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is now assessing his party members’ functioning.
He has quietly introduced a new grading system, based on colour code, to reward the performers and shunt out underperforming office-bearers at the state level.
Based on performance, a party functionary will be graded in Green, Yellow and Red. The outstanding performers will be given Green while the average ones are rated Yellow and the non-performers will be given the the Red card.
The ranking system was taken up as a pilot project in Gujarat and Kerala recently. Sources said the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee completed the grading and submitted the report cards to Rahul on August 19. The party’s Gujarat unit is yet to forward the evaluation reports.
All office-bearers, barring the PCC chief who is directly appointed by the high command, will be graded. These include the state vice-presidents, general secretaries, secretaries, treasurers and district presidents.
Rahul had successfully carried out the grading experiment in the National Students Union of India (NSUI) and the Indian Youth Congress and he wanted the experiment in the Congress.
The rating system is based on the answers to a questionnaire Rahul had introduced in March.
Asked if this kind of corporate system would deter dedicated partymen, a senior leader said: “On the contrary, it will help us assess a person first-hand and reward those who work sincerely against those who have been surviving on sycophancy doing minimum work. The nature of politics is changing and we need to respond to the changing times.”
However, there are dissenting voices also. A party leader said on the condition of anonymity: “Politics is not just like any other profession. It is different and a politician cannot be assessed the way a government or corporate employee is rated.”
BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar, when contacted, refused to react. “It is an internal matter of the Congress. I have no comments,” he said.
INDIA TODAY
