Opening remarks of the Congress President, Smt. Sonia Gandhi at the CWC Meeting on May 9, 2022, at the AICC Headquarters in New Delhi

"You may recall that at the end of our last meeting, I had announced that we would soon be organizing a Chintan Shivir.

This is being held in Udaipur on May 13, 14 and 15. Around 400 of our colleagues will participate. The vast majority of them hold or have held one position or the other in the organization or in the Union government. We have made every effort to ensure balanced representation-balance from every angle.

Our deliberations will be in six segments. These will take up political, economic, social justice, farmers, youth and organizational issues. Delegates have already been informed in which group they are expected to participate. On the afternoon of May 15, we will be adopting the Udaipur Nav Sankalp after it has been approved by the CWC there.

I request your full cooperation in ensuring that the single over-riding message that goes forth loud and clear from Udaipur is one of unity, cohesion, determination and commitment to our party’s accelerated revival.

There are no magic wands. It is only with selfless work, discipline and a sense of consistent collective purpose that we will demonstrate our tenacity and resilience. The party has been central to the life of each and every one of us. It has expected our total allegiance and has been good to each and every one of us. Now, when we are at a crucial juncture, it is imperative that we step forward and repay our debt to the party in full measure.

Self-criticism is of course needed in our party forums. But this should not be done in a manner that erodes self-confidence and morale and an atmosphere of gloom and doom prevails. To the contrary, we are beholden to put our heads together and together, collectively overcome the challenges that face us.

This requires that the Chintan Shivir does not become a ritual, something we must just get through. I am determined that it should herald a restructured organization to meet the many ideological, electoral and managerial tasks we confront.

I had set up coordination panels to set out the broad agenda for each of the six groups. These panels have met. I will now request the convenors of these panels to brief us on the broad subjects that have been identified for discussion within each of the groups.

We also have an amendment to our Party’s Constitution for your approval. This has to do with digital membership for which I want to congratulate our young colleagues for their accomplishment so far.”