Chandigarh: The Tricity Unit of Vishwa Ayurved Parishad organised a joint celebration of Independence Day and Charak Jayanti at Sector 43 in Chandigarh on Saturday. The programme brought doctors together to mark the two occasions with enthusiasm and patriotic spirit. The event was presided over by Tricity President Dr Geeta Joshi, while Unit General Secretary Dr Rajesh Tayal conducted the proceedings and kept the gathering engaged throughout the programme. Prof. (Dr) Satya Dev Pandey, State Senior Vice President, delivered the keynote address. He highlighted the significant contributions of Maharishi Charak to the field of medicine and underlined the relevance of his legacy in the promotion of Ayurveda.

Dr Geeta Joshi said that Charak Jayanti, commemorating the birth anniversary of revered Ayurvedic scholar Acharya Charaka, was also observed highlighting his contribution to Ayurveda and the enduring relevance of the Charaka Samhita. Charak Jayanti is traditionally associated with Nag Panchami, the fifth day of the bright fortnight of Shravan.

Acharya Charaka is regarded as one of the principal contributors to classical Ayurveda and is associated with the Charaka Samhita, one of the foundational texts of Ayurvedic medicine. The work deals with areas including health, diagnosis, treatment and principles for maintaining well-being. On the occasion, experts use the occasion to underline the importance of preserving India’s traditional knowledge while encouraging research and contemporary understanding of Ayurveda. Celebrations such as Charak Jayanti also help keep the historical and cultural legacy of Ayurvedic learning connected with younger generations.

Dr Geeta Joshi thanked all the doctors for participating in the celebration and expressed gratitude to Aristo Pharma for sponsoring the event. The programme concluded with patriotic songs, creating an atmosphere of national pride and camaraderie among the participants.

By Manoj Kumar

Chandigarh: The appointment of Sanjay Dutt as Haryana Congress in-charge has brought a renewed focus on strengthening the party organisation at the grassroots, with particular emphasis on energising booth-level workers and agents. However, the larger challenge before the party remains the task of addressing internal differences among its senior leaders.

With the next Assembly election still some distance away, the Congress is seeking to use the intervening period to rebuild its organisational network, reconnect with workers and strengthen its presence at the booth level. The strategy assumes greater significance following the electoral setbacks suffered by the Opposition INDIA bloc in Bihar and West Bengal, where organisational weaknesses and leadership coordination have emerged as important political concerns.

The Haryana Congress appears keen to ensure that it does not enter the next electoral battle relying primarily on prominent leaders and their individual support bases. Instead, the party wants an active cadre capable of maintaining regular contact with voters and taking the Congress’s political message to the grassroots.

Yet, the effectiveness of this strategy will ultimately depend on whether the party can address the factionalism that became particularly visible during the 2024 Haryana Assembly election. Differences among senior leaders and competing political camps had often overshadowed the broader campaign, raising questions about coordination and collective leadership.

Dutt’s appointment therefore comes at a crucial juncture. His responsibility extends beyond rebuilding the organisation. He will also have to establish greater coordination among the party’s senior leaders and ensure that different factions work towards a common political objective.

A strong booth-level organisation can give the Congress a significant advantage, but only if workers receive a consistent political message from the leadership. Any disconnect between senior leaders could once again leave the grassroots cadre confused about the party’s priorities and electoral strategy.

The experience of neighbouring Punjab also offers a warning. Internal differences, competing leadership ambitions and disagreements over political strategy can become increasingly difficult to manage as an election approaches. For the Haryana Congress, preventing such differences from reaching a critical stage will be essential if the party wants to convert its organisational efforts into electoral gains.

The current grassroots drive could help restore confidence among workers who felt marginalised or inactive during previous election cycles. But organisational expansion alone may not be enough. Differences over leadership roles, political strategy and, eventually, ticket distribution could test the unity of the party as the election draws closer.

Dutt’s success will therefore be judged on two fronts: how effectively he rebuilds the Congress organisation from the booth level and, more importantly, whether he can bring the party’s competing leadership camps onto a common platform.

For the Haryana Congress, the challenge is no longer merely to build a larger cadre. It is to ensure that the cadre sees a united leadership, a clear political strategy and a common electoral goal.

The coming months will indicate whether Sanjay Dutt can achieve that balance or whether internal differences once again overshadow the Congress’s efforts to rebuild its organisation in Haryana.

By Manoj Kumar

Chandigarh: The Congress’s renewed emphasis on strengthening its grassroots organisation in Haryana comes at a time when the party faces a more fundamental challenge—resolving competing leadership ambitions within its state units.

During the last Haryana Assembly election, the party’s leadership question was widely seen as a major source of tension, with three prominent camps associated with former Haryana Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Sirsa MP and former Union Minister Kumari Selja and Rajya Sabha Memmber Randeep Singh Surjewala representing different strands of the state leadership. The differences over leadership and political space became particularly significant during the election campaign.

The departure of senior leader Kiran Choudhry from the Congress also underlined the seriousness of the leadership tensions within the state unit. Her exit, followed by her move to the BJP, was another setback for the party at a time when it was preparing for the Assembly election.

The Congress now has an opportunity to learn from that experience. With Sanjay Dutt taking charge as the Haryana in-charge, the party’s organisational rebuilding exercise will have to go hand in hand with efforts to create greater cohesion among its senior leaders.

The issue is not merely about deciding who will lead the party. It is also about ensuring that different leadership groups do not operate as separate political centres when an election approaches. A disciplined and energetic booth-level cadre can be effective only when it receives a clear and unified political message from the state leadership.

The developments in Punjab make the issue even more relevant for the Congress high command. Differences involving senior leaders, including former Chief Minister and Current Member of Parliament Charanjit Singh Channi and Member of Parliament and Punjab State president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, have kept the question of leadership and political direction in focus as the party prepares for the next Assembly election.

For the Congress, the concern is whether it is repeating in Punjab the same mistake that hurt its prospects in Haryana—allowing leadership differences to remain unresolved until the electoral battle is already underway.

The party cannot afford to postpone the question indefinitely. Leadership clarity does not necessarily mean announcing a chief ministerial face years before an election; it means establishing a mechanism through which competing leaders agree to work within a common strategy and accept collective decision-making.

The Congress has shown that such political coordination is possible. In Karnataka, the party managed to navigate competing leadership claims and maintain a working arrangement between Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar after the 2023 Assembly election. While differences did not disappear, the party leadership succeeded in preventing them from becoming an immediate organisational crisis.

That experience offers a possible lesson for Haryana and Punjab. The Congress does not necessarily need to eliminate differences among ambitious leaders—political parties naturally contain competing aspirations. What it needs is a system capable of managing those differences before they damage the organisation.

For Haryana, Sanjay Dutt’s task is therefore larger than simply building a booth-level cadre. He will have to persuade the different leadership camps that organisational strengthening and electoral preparation cannot succeed if the party remains divided at the top.

Punjab presents a similar challenge. If the Congress wants to regain political space, it will have to demonstrate to its workers and voters that its senior leaders can put collective electoral strategy above individual leadership ambitions.

The lesson from Haryana’s previous Assembly election should be clear: a strong cadre cannot compensate indefinitely for a divided leadership.

With elections still some distance away, the Congress has time to address the problem. But that window may narrow rapidly once candidate selection and campaign politics begin. The party’s central leadership will therefore have to act early—before internal leadership competition again becomes the defining story of its state units.