Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday charged the NDA Government of displaying “dictatorial” tendencies and vowed to protest against the Ordinance Raj by overhauling her own party. She accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of soft-pedalling “provocative” speeches of his partymen as part of “polarisation” tactics.
At the four-hour long marathon meeting of Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Tuesday, senior leaders of the Congress drew up a strategy to highlight “anti-farmer” policies of the NDA regime, and initiate protest against the land Acquisition Ordinance.
The meet decided to start a massive membership drive, but did not touch upon the possibility of Rahul Gandhi’s elevation from party’s vice-president
to president.
With the party’s support base on an unstoppable decline since its debacle in the general elections last year, Sonia asked senior leaders to “propose ways and means to reach out to the masses.”
The meet was held to deliberate on current political situation and make plans for holding nationwide agitations against the land Ordinance.
Accusing the Government of having “effectively destroyed” the land Acquisition Act, which was brought in by the Congress-led UPA, she said that NDA “brought back, through the back door, the law passed by the British in 1894.”
“The country’s democratic institutions are being undermined. The BJP-led Government has already promulgated 10 Ordinances in its seven-month tenure. The NDA dispensation is operating through a perilous notion that Ordinances constitute good governance,” Sonia said, adding whether there was “an ulterior motive behind this hurry to bring OrdinancesIJ”
The land Ordinance issue has offered the Congress with an opportunity to reach out to farmers and strengthen its aam aadmi plank, which was hit all the more by its dismal showing in Delhi Assembly polls in 2013 when Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party appeared to have overshadowed that image of the grand old party.
The party also discussed organisational issues like re-introducing the active-member concept, bringing down the tenure of elected office-bearers from five to three years and providing 50 per cent reservation to SC, ST, OBC and minorities in district and state committees of the party. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi advocated for empowering grass-roots workers and delegating powers to block presidents.
Sonia said that while the previous year was a “challenging one” for the party, she hopes that 2015 will herald a new beginning for it and would be an “occasion to prepare the party” for many more years of service to the country. Expansion of the party’s worker base and changes in its organisational structure were the themes that came up during the CWC deliberations as Sonia set the agenda for the meeting.
Regarding the speculation about Rahul elevation as the Congress president, AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said the matter was not on the agenda of CWC and there was no discussion in that regard.
Former Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh and former Food Minister KV Thomas made a detailed presentation during the meet on the Ordinance issue and other decisions of the Government affecting farmers, like minimum support price.
Conspicuous by his absence was lok Sabha member from Amritsar Amarinder Singh, who a couple of days back had lodged serious complaints against Punjab PCC to Sonia Gandhi and sought her immediate intervention.