Explained – Congress to hold ‘historic’ CWC session in Belagavi from today: What's the Mahatma Gandhi connection?

The Congress is holding an extended session the Congress Working Committee (CWC) – the party’s highest decision-making body – and a rally in Belagavi, Karnataka on Thursday and Friday. The event commemorates the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi presiding over the Congress’s historic Belgaum (now Belagavi) session as the party president in 1924.

The Congress top brass, including its chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, and Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, along with CWC members and senior party leaders from across the country, will attend the two-day event.

The leaders are expected to discuss party’s future strategy at the event.

Why Belagavi?

After his release from prison in February 1924 following a surgery, Mahatma Gandhi was unhappy over the lack of unity between Hindus and Muslims during the freedom struggle. He went on a 21-day fast from September 18 to October 8 that year to “bridge” this divide. He also wanted to address the issue of rampant factionalism in the Congress party.

Congress MP KC Venugopal said the event is being held to celebrate the centenary of the 1924 session of the party. Venugopal called it a “historic event” which will see the participation of around 200 leaders.

“Mahatma Gandhi presented his address in Belgaum basically on non-violence, non-cooperation as a means to attain political freedom, the removal of untouchability, promoting unity between communities, the need to address socio-economic disparity and reinforce the principle of justice and equality. These were the contents of Gandhi ji’s speech in 1924. The Belgaum session became the bedrock of India’s freedom movement,” he said.

Only Session Presided by the Mahatma

It was the only session of the Congress party presided over by Mahatma Gandhi as the party chief. Gandhi was Congress president between December 1924 and April 1925.

The session was attended by several senior Congress leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Sarojini Naidu, and Khilafat movement leaders Muhammad Ali Jauhar and Shaukat Ali, among others.

The Congress party has called this extended Congress Working Committee Meeting at Belgavi a ‘Nav Satyagrah Bethak’. The meeting will be held at the same venue where Mahatma Gandhi took over the presidency of the Indian National Congress. “The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has completed all the arrangements for this historic session. Along with the CWC members, around 200 leaders will be attending the session,” Venugopal said.

What’s on the agenda?

The meeting will start December 26 at 2:30 pm at Mahatma Gandhi Nagar. The first day of the session would be held at the Veera Soudha, the venue of the 1924 session. On the second day, a statue of Mahatma Gandhi sanctioned by the Karnataka government will be unveiled at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha – the state Assembly in Belagavi.

“On the 27th morning, at 11:30 am, the ‘Jai Bapu-Jai Bhim-Jai Sanvidhan’ rally will be held in Belgavi. MPs of Congress and AICC functionaries and lakhs of Congress workers will be participating in that,” Venugopal said.

Venugopal said that the CWC meeting will discuss the action plan of the Congress party for the next year and adopt two resolutions.

“The meeting will deliberate upon the critical challenges facing the nation under the BJP rule including economic inequality, erosion of democracy and attack on Constitutional institutions. This is going to be a landmark programme of INC to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s presidency as a president of the Congress,” he said.

Why does the event matter for Congress?

In the present political circumstances, the Congress needs a resurgence like it did in 1924, a party leader told The Indian Express. “We are hopeful that it makes some important functional changes and gets back to winning ways,” the leader said.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Randeep Surjewala, meanwhile alleged that BJP’s style of functioning is ‘similar’ to the East India Company.

“Both party president and LoP in the Lok Sabha have described the BJP as the kin of the East India Company. The BJP’s style – concentrating wealth in a few hands, exploiting the poor and looking down upon oppressed classes like SCs, STs, OBCs and minorities – is similar to what the East India Company did,” he told The Indian Express.