Praveen Chakravarty takes over from Shashi Tharoor to head All India Professionals’ Congress

“It is now time to turn it into a formidable group,” Mr. Chakravarty said

The Congress appointed Praveen Chakravarty, who currently heads the Data Analytics Department of the party, as Chairman of All India Professionals’ Congress (AIPC). He has replaced Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor, who was the founder chairman of the body. 

The unit, a brain child of former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, was founded in 2017 to act as an additional feeder organisation to the parent party and giving a platform to professionals who are interested in politics. Taking over the position, Mr. Chakravarty lauded the work done by Mr. Tharoor. “I am well aware that Shashi’s shoes are impossibly large to fill. AIPC under Shashi has done a stellar job in organising professionals into a formal group. It is now time to turn it into a formidable group,” Mr. Chakravarty said in a statement here. 

Mr. Tharoor was recently inducted to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), but currently does not hold any other position.  

Mr. Chakravarty stated that it was “professionals with careers in law, medicine, academia, business and media that formed the core founding team of the Congress party. “The pantheon of freedom fighters – Lal Lajpat Rai, Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Rajendra Prasad, Mahatma Gandhi, Vallabhai Patel, Maulana Azad, C Rajagopalchari, T. Prakasam and hundreds of other leaders were professionals with flourishing careers who chose to devote themselves to the cause of India’s independence,” Mr. Chakravarty said. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “modern India’s greatest nation builders” is also a “quintessential professional,” Mr. Chakravarty said. 

He also pointed out that in 1923, nearly half of the 338 AICC members were professionals. “Today of the nearly 2000 AICC members, just a handful are. At a time when there is an attack on the very idea of a diverse, democratic India that we cherish, it is incumbent upon professionals to step up and be counted in this struggle to reclaim our nation,” he said.

Mr. Chakravarty further added that he envisions the organisation to be a platform for professionals’ engagement in nation building through the “twin realms of actions and ideas”. “As someone who stepped into active politics after more than two decades as a private sector professional, I know what it takes to contribute meaningfully to the larger national interest through the platform of a liberal political party,” he said.