Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rhetoric shows his “desperation” reflecting that the “reverse countdown” of the government has begun, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi said yesterday.
Speaking at a meeting of the new Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, Gandhi also cautioned about the reign of despair and fear heaped upon the country’s poor.
The meeting was also attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who rejected the culture of constant self-praise and ‘jumlas’ of Modi.
This, Singh said, stood against the solid policy framework necessary for growth.
Singh said that the claim of doubling farm income by 2022 would require an agricultural growth rate of 14%, which was nowhere in sight.
Gandhi and Singh are the senior members of the new CWC that will form the core team of the party for state elections this year and next year’s Lok Sabha polls.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi, chairing the first meeting of the new CWC, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of oppressing the poor and Dalits and urged party workers to fight for India’s poor.
Describing the Congress as the “voice of India”, Gandhi said the party had a responsibility towards the present and the future.
He said the CWC had the experience and energy and was a bridge between the past, present and future.
The CWC authorised Gandhi to take a decision on alliances for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, both pre- and post-poll.
Party spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala, who briefed reporters after the CWC meeting, said that the Congress was prepared for a “larger alliance” to defeat the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the next general elections.
“The CWC, the party’s highest decision making body, authorised Gandhi to take appropriate decision for pre- and post-poll alliances as well as to form a small committee for the purpose, if needed,” Surjewala said.
He said Gandhi will either involve himself or his senior colleagues in states where such alliances are needed.
Meanwhile, in a clear warning to some of its “loose cannons”, the Congress stressed that it expected its leaders and workers to “toe the party line” on larger political issues in their public interactions.
Party president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Ashok Gehlot emphasised in their respective addresses that party leaders and workers should observe discipline.
“The Congress president clearly said he gave a friendly advice and he hopes that all leaders of Congress Party in view of the larger goal, that is, 2019 elections, will maintain discipline in both their language and conduct,” Surjewala said.
“There is full freedom of expression but as far as party line (on various issues) is concerned, the Congress leadership will expect from its leaders and workers that they maintain the dignity of the language as well as that of conduct,” he added.
Surjewala said that Gehlot, in his address, underlined that first this discipline would be expected from the leaders and then from the workers.
In the past, certain comments by some Congress leaders have cost the party dearly with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) quickly taking advantage of it, such as the BJP starting its “chai pe charcha” (discussion over tea) campaign in 2014 Lok Sabha elections after Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “chaiwallah” (tea vendor).
lRahul Gandhi said he smelled a scam in the Rafale deal, claiming Modi “squirmed” when questions over the price of the fighter planes were raised in parliament.
“The PM squirms when asked about the price of Rafale and refuses to look me in the eye. Sure smells like a scam,” Gandhi tweeted.
He also took a dig at Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for “flip flops” on revealing details of the deal.
During a debate on no-confidence motion in Lok Sabha on Friday, Gandhi had said that French president had told him personally that there was no secret pact between the two governments while Sitharaman said there was.
“Our Defence Minister said she would, but now she won’t. She flip flops between ‘it’s-not-a-secret’ & ‘it’s-a-BIG-secret’,” Gandhi said.
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