State Congress president Raj Babbar’s efforts to revive the Media Cell or to at least enforce discipline among the cadres failed to take off as all spokesmen have their `God Fathers’ and Babbar has so far not shown any sign of ignoring recommendations of party bigwigs.
Sources said that Babbar recently called the former Chairman of UPCC media cell, Satyadeo Tripathi and asked him to remove whosoever failed to follow the guidelines laid down by him. However, past experiences stopped Tripathi from initiating any action as earlier he removed a couple of spokesmen, only to find them back at the helm by successive state chiefs.
``The question of indiscipline by some spokespersons was raised by one of our colleagues during a recent meet headed by Babbar. The UPCC chief asked Tripathiji to handle the situation but when the latter raised the issue of reinstatement of some spokes persons removed from the Cell by Babbar himself, the state party chief instead of taking a firm stand, relived Tripathiji of his charge,” revealed a spokesman while confirming that Babbar failed to act against leaders who despite being removed from Media Cell continued to represent the party as `spokespersons’ during TV debates.
“Recently, one of such spokesrman having blessings of a veteran Congress leader, arranged a meeting of select journalists with Babbar keeping Tripathiji in the dark. But Babbar went ahead with the interaction instead of stressing on due protocol,” the leader added.
Expressing concern over growing groupism within the party, another Congress leader said that some former presidents, including Raj Babbar, never selected a competent media team. “The party is divided in a dozen groups, each headed by some former minister, former state chief or veteran leader. The Cells, specially Media Cell, consists of such blue-eyed boys,” he said.
The leader further pointed out that it was an irony that no state Congress chief wanted to challenge the existing `syndicate’ which relegated the party to a position where they only have a handful few legislators.