The UPA government is inclined to revive the National Advisory Council (NAC), whose term ended in March last year. However, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has not made up her mind on chairing the body yet, it is reliably learnt.
Official sources said that while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress president enjoy a great rapport and hold frequent discussions on policy matters, the party leadership feels the need for a mechanism to ensure the party?s commitments to the people are fulfilled.
?We are certainly going to revive the NAC, although we don?t know Mrs Gandhi?s role yet,? said a Cabinet minister and senior Congress leader.
?The NAC, as it was, was a hugely successful coordination mechanism, at least as long as Mrs Gandhi headed it,? said an AICC general secretary. ?The NAC played a very important role in making path-breaking legislations like the RTI Act and the NREGA a reality. We need this mechanism all the more because we cannot leave implementation of the Congress manifesto to the whims and fancies of babudom,? the general secretary said.
Congress leaders argued that but for the NAC?s push, important legislations could have been diluted and delayed because some in the first UPA government considered social sector schemes like the NREGA wasteful expenditure. The party now attributes its success in Lok Sabha polls to such schemes.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has already gone public with his demand for the revival of the NAC. Crisis managers of the ruling party, however, prefer to tread cautiously.
Sonia Gandhi had to resign as NAC chairperson after getting embroiled in the office-of-profit controversy three years ago. She also quit the Lok Sabha to take the sting out of the Opposition campaign against her before seeking re-election successfully. The NAC had been set up as an interface with civil society to implement UPA-I?s National Common Minimum Programme.
Congress leaders believe that any coordination mechanism without Sonia?s involvement would have limited relevance.