Contrary to its old-age politics of opposing the rival parties on issues concerning the people, the Delhi Congress on Monday adopted a new mantra of new-age politics to play the new avatar of the constructive Opposition to assist the Centre and the city administration to solve matters concerning the common man. A day after taking over as the Delhi Congress chief, Ajay Maken in his first media interaction decided to launch a three-day awareness campaign against swine flu to help the AAP Government combat the influenza in the national Capital.
This was the first occasion when President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmishtha, local leaders Brahm Yadav, Suresh Malik, Jagdish Thukral, Hari Shankar Gupta and Chattar Singh shared the dais with the new party chief. This was also the first occasion when all the leaders donned Gandhian tricolour cap with “will speak only truth” written on one side and “only truth wins” on the other. Speaking on the new slogan, ‘Satyamev Jayate’, that the party has adopted, Maken explained, “This slogan has been a part of the Congress’ tradition since the days of freedom struggle. Adopting this would help in instilling the values of truth within the workers.”
Giving details about the awareness campaign, beginning Wednesday, Maken said the positive approach while in Opposition was being necessitated by the demands of the “new-age politics.” “Now the time has come when people want the Opposition parties to come out with constructive and productive agendas. This approach was bound to help in making better use of the large army of motivated party workers.”
Maken said 12,000 people had been affected by the swine flu in the country. Of these, 1,370 had reportedly died. Of 3,438 cases detected in Delhi alone, 10 had reportedly died so far. He said it was the responsibility of the Congress to seek support of both the Centre and the State administration to launch the awareness campaign.
“I am also writing a letter in this regard to the Delhi Chief Minister,” Maken said, adding teams of 10 to 15 volunteers will be placed at each of the 138 Metro stations, colleges, universities and major markets to educate people about the do’s and don’ts of the influenza through pamphlets, ply-cards and social media networks.