Sonia Gandhi
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday asked her party MPs to “resist the authoritarian and sectarian tendencies” of the new government as it tries to get its way in Parliament. “This we have begun to do, I believe, with increasing effectiveness,” she said.
She said the BJP has nothing “new” to offer the country and “it is now governing us without policies”. But they are “welcome to steal our ideas, borrow our programmes” as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
In a bid to boost the morale of party workers following their historic defeat and growing dissension within the party against its chief ministers in election-bound states, she observed: “The process of rebuilding and restoring the confidence of the public in the Congress Party has begun.”
Drawing attention to the BJP’s election slogans of Achchhe din aane wale hain and Sabka saath, sabka vikas, she said: “Let them even continue to blame us for their own failures, as they have been doing. Prices are rising across the nation, hurting the ordinary housewife, the college student, the worker, and particularly the unemployed and the deprived. How long will they be able to blame the UPA government for their inability to control inflation or improve the economy? Such excuses have a short shelf life.”
Mrs Gandhi said the Congress will fight them (the BJP and the Centre) the moment they betray the ideals on which this nation was built, the moment they pursue the “politics of division and hatred, the moment they try to behave dictatorially inside and outside this temple of Indian democracy”.
Asking party MPs to connect with grassroots and voters, she said the work of the party is “in Parliament, in public forums, in our media and in the street as and homes of ordinary Indians everywhere. It is their voice to which we seek to give expression here.”
Telling partymen “our work is cut out for us”, Mrs Gandhi said it has been a “challenging time” for the Congress and asked them to resist the government’s “authoritarian and sectarian” tendencies.
“It is our task to play the role of a vigilant Opposition, to stand up for the values and policies of the Indian National Congress, and to resist the authoritarian and sectarian tendencies of the new government as it tries to get its way in Parliament.”
“This we have begun to do, I believe, with increasing effectiveness,” Mrs Gandhi said addressing the first meeting of the CPP in this session.