TNCC chief revives disciplinary panel

TNCC sources privy to the development admitted that the TNCC chief had left for New Delhi to get the disciplinary committee proposal approved, barely a few days after a handful of supporters of former TNCC chief EVKS Elagovan had petitioned Congress national president Sonia Gandhi about them being replaced with persons of questionable credentials as district Congress presidents. 

A TNCC senior member requesting anonymity reasoned that having a committee would lend credence to disciplinary actions being initiated by the TNCC chief against such rebels, who have been baying for his blood since his assumption of office at Sathyamurthy Bhavan.  

“His writ would run large if he gets his men appointed as disciplinary committee members. Any disciplinary action initiated against would not be called arbitrary. At least he can tell the AICC that he had gone by the rules. His decisions would stand legal scrutiny,” reasoned a TNCC leader, exuding confidence that the AICC might approve the committee, hopefully, soon.  

However, there is a catch. Past presidents of TNCC like Elangovan and KV Thangkabalu had not bothered about routing their decisions through the disciplinary committee. While Elangovan had sacked functionaries close to former union minister P Chidambaram, Thangkabalu had dared to even sack youth Congress functionaries directly reporting to Rahul Gandhi’s office. 

“The two immediate past presidents of TNCC did not even issue show cause notices, let alone recommending cases to disciplinary committee. Indeed, their decision was overturned once, but it did not affect them,” said another TNCC senior requesting anonymity. 

Disciplinary committee would help reprimand functionaries only when they engage in ugly spats like the exchange of blows witnessed between two Mahila Congress functionaries early this month. Irrespective of its benefits, the committee would be a shot in the arm for Thirunavukkarasar.