The Congress on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Modi Government, alleging there was a brazen campaign to straitjacket the country into a “regressive and narrow-minded world view”.
Chairing a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), party president Sonia Gandhi asked the party members to be ready for 2019 elections to protect the essence and idea of India, which, she said, the Government was seeking to “extinguish”.
Apart from taking stock of the political situation in the country, the CWC, which is the highest decision making body of the grand old party, also discussed the upcoming presidential and vice-presidential elections. It also approved the schedule for organisational elections.
With the meeting taking place against the backdrop of raging debates over cattle slaughter, the Congress chief alleged that “divisive issues are being whipped up, and there is an assault on livelihood and food habits of those who follow different tenets and beliefs”.
Emphasising that the current crisis in Jammu & Kashmir is due to the “colossal failure” of the Government, she said the “insensitive” handling of the situation by both the State and Central Governments are systematically alienating and antogonising the local people, especially the youth. “A divisive agenda is being followed which has undone years of goodwill and progress,” Sonia said in her speech.
On the party’s failure to form Governments in Goa and Manipur despite winning the highest number of seats in the Assembly elections, Sonia said, “We cannot let this happen again”. She asked partymen to help strengthen the organisation.
The meeting, which was attended by top party leaders, including party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, slammed the NDA dispensation, saying it is only a Government of “slogans and publicity” that seeks to become a “hero on television alone, but is zero on the ground”.
Senior Congress leaders AK Antony, P Chidambaram, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, Janardan Dwivedi and Digvijay Singh were among those who attended the CWC meeting.
The party president said it is a matter of grave concern that there has been a rise in “lynch mobs” mentality and alleged there existed a close ideological affinity between these mobs and the ruling establishment.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the country’s growth has slowed down mainly due to demonetisation and the economy was running on just one engine of public spending. “Private sector investment has collapsed and the economy is running on just one engine of public spending,” he said at the meeting. “The most worrisome aspect of all this is the impact on job creation.
Jobs have been extremely hard to come by for the youth of the nation,” said Singh.