Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi said- You have heard me. I am very happy that today we have had a meeting of selected Chairmen from different states. Of course, my senior colleague from the centre is here, Mr (Salman) Khurshid. I have the privilege of heading this tripartite department which is not only law, but also RTI and Human Rights.
As you remember, we had a very successful meet at Vigyan Bhawan a few months ago, on an all-India basis, where synergistically we have tried to bring people from all corners of India into a united whole with lot of activities from this department.
Carrying forward from there, the first facet we discussed today, was the creation in line with Shri Rahul Gandhi’s great initiative to revitalize district units. We are now making, re-constituting, operationalizing, identifying, listing for each administrative district of India, a team of five senior persons from these three subjects.
Of course, that is the minimum number. It can be larger, who will be our eyes, ears on the ground- coordinators, actors, mover and this will be put together in a final list for All-India after being addressed for each district. This will be done by state chairman in consultation with us and where, there are no state chairman by nominees at the central level.
The second facet, we are discussing today, is the operationalization of what we had called in the Vigyan Bhawan function- The Rapid Response Force (the RRF), which is, at the state level, a minimum of five senior people, who can take up cudgels on behalf of the Congress in actual legal matters in court, argue, and get relief, and get things moving inside the courtroom. That list is also highly advanced and I think, we should have that within 4–6-week timeline, we have given.
The third facet is, the building of a directory, an all-India directory, computerized directory, searchable both by state, as well as by alphabetical name, across all these categories, of all those involved in our department because from there, it becomes easier to access, whether we are accessing our Rapid Response Force or the District Heads etc. that again, we have given this 4-6 week timeline.
We also have a… of course, there is another problem we have, which I am trying to solve in a very expeditious manner, some states do not have chairman and I think that will be operationalized in the near future that will be re-constituted in the near future.
The fifth and last important point and a somewhat innovative point it that is to try and involve youngsters roughly between 21 and 28, possibly between 21 and 30, who want to be associated with the Congress as legal professional. By legal, I include- RTI and the Human Right professionals and they will be tied up in an internship programme with our 127 odd MPs in the first phase, a couple let us say per MP, to be associated on these 3 subjects with the Congress’ approach, with the Congress’ Eco system, they are not necessarily of the Congress as of now. If this works well then, we will also expand it to each MLA in each assembly level position.
The result was very fruitful and intimate discussion. I am thankful to people all… many joined by VC, many came physically; we had representatives from Tripura, from Meghalaya, from West Bengal… of course, across India, many are here from Rajasthan, from Karnataka, etc. etc.
So, we hope to kind of tie all this together and have another function, where we will present this to the Congress President, to Shri Rahul Gandhi in the near future. That’s why, the short timeline has been given.
