As part of its reinvention strategy, the Congress is setting up a national-level training academy for its cadre.
The Na. Su. Hardikar Seva Dal training academy will come up at Ghataprabha in Belagavi district, where Seva Dal founder Dr. Hardikar spent a large part of his active public life.
The academy will train the Seva Dal volunteers and office-bearers in physical and mental abilities and overall personality development. The party ideology and cadre discipline will form a vital part of the training.
The centre would be inaugurated on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2. The campus is adjacent to the Karnataka Health Institute charity hospital and training centre founded by Dr. Hardikar and his friends in Ghataprabha in the 1930s.
Apart from some full-time staff, the academy will have some guest faculty. Senior leaders, dedicated party workers, and those with organisational experience will visit the centre. “However, we will have a whole set of resource persons who have no connection to the Congress or to political parties,’’ says Satish Jarkiholi, KPCC working president, who is involved in the establishment of the academy. According to him, administrators, social activists, NGO members, student leaders, office-bearers of organisations fighting of the rights of women, children, deprived classes, environment protection lobbyists, anti-blind belief crusaders, legal awareness groups, farmers’ leaders, climate change campaigners, and other groups would be invited as resource persons.
“We have been saying that Congress should be a cadre-based party. But these are the first concrete steps towards building an informed cadre,’’ says Mr. Jarkiholi.
Cadre members would be divided into various wings including mainstream social service, party organisation, governance and public policy, and digital campaign. After they complete a basic course, they will be trained in niche areas based on their interest and background.
A full-fledged digital training centre would be set up in the academy. “We will use it to train our party workers and leaders for the present day. We need to push up our presence in the field of digital campaigning. BJP is using its IT cell not only for poll campaign, but also for getting feedback on government policies and building up the image of the party and Ministers. The IT cell is also used to spread misinformation, abusing Opposition leaders and creating and spreading falsehoods. We may need a dedicated team to counter them and also to spread the right news and information among the public and our supporters,” Mr. Jarkiholi said.
Construction of the institute building is nearly over. The campus has a large convention hall, hostels for men and women and an office, apart from a kitchen and dining rooms. The rest of the 5-acre campus has over 600 saplings. The roof of the main building resembles a Gandhi cap that Seva Dal members wear.
“If you look at the history of the Seva Dal, it has served the party as a dedicated group of fighters during the British era and in the first few decades of independence. We need to reclaim that position by developing discipline among the cadre and training them for future challenges,” Mr. Jarkiholi said.
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Freedom fighter Narayana Subbarao Hardikar, who hailed from Tilavalli village near Haveri, founded the Seval Dal as as a cadre to help the Congress fight the British and to implement Gandhi’s ideals of Sarvodaya in 1923.
He had completed master’s degree in medicine at Michigan University in the U.S. before joining his friends G.R. Kokatnur and M.K. Vaidya in starting a charity hospital in Ghatapraba in 1929.
