24 May 2002
SONIA REBUFFS COMMUNAL SCARE
AMONG CONGRESS LEADERS
From Jal Khambata
NEW
DELHI: Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday touched the raw
nerve of the Congress leaders numbed from the communal carnage in
Gujarat, pointing out that "we ourselves are intimidated by
false propaganda by our adversaries."
In her opening
Presidential remarks at the one-day AICC session here, she, however,
warned that "we will not indulge in competitive communalism."
She criticised all those who mobilise people on communal lines for
political gains.
Her dig was apparently at the Congress
leaders of Gujarat who were so scared of losing the Hindu votes in
the wake of the carnage that they took weeks before they even
gathered courage to demand dismissal of Chief Minister Narendra Modi
aiding and abetting the Hindus' attacks on the minority.
The
"harsh truth" is that yes the communal forces are
"well-organised" and "so widely spread" but
against them the Congress has to play only one card, the "India
card" for the rule of democracy, Sonia Gandhi said. "We
must defeat communalism with determination as it is destroying our
cultual heritage," she said.
The AICC session being held
in the shadow of over two months of the naked communal carnage in Goa
aptly reflected the mood in the party as the venue, the Talkatora
indoor stadium, was named "Sadbhavna Nagar" and the slogan
decorating the dias read: "Sadbhavna aur pragati ke path par"
in Hindi and "Towards harmony and progress" in
English.
Sonia Gandhi dealt with the threats on the Indian
borders, cross-border terrorism, economic ruin under the Vajpayee
Government, role of youths and women's reservation, but the main
thrust of her over an hour-long Presidential address was on the
Gujarat carnage.
She said all must ponder and understand how
come Gujarat, the land of Mahatma Gandhi, can become a ground for
religious fanaticism. She said whenever Assembly polls are held in
Gujarat, the Congress will go to the people with just one message:
"Social peace, harmony and religious amity" should prevail
and for that they should throw out those who preach and practice
"politics of hatred." Gujarat needs "politics that
heals and not politics that wounds."
Pointing out that
"secularism for us is a matter of conviction and not compulsion"
and it stands "not for freedom from religions but for freedom of
religions", Sonia Gandhi said the majority of people in Gujarat
want harmony and peace and it is only a handful of people who want to
trample upon it and they will not succeed if "we ourselves are
not intimidated by false propaganda by our adversaries."
Sonia
Gandhi gave the "mantra" of "austerity" for the
Congress-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, pointing out
that determined efforts were needed to defeat the anti-incumbancy
factor by ensuring that there is no "vulgar display of
power."
She said this was essential since there is
special significance of the states going to polls in a year from now
as it would have an impact on the next Lok Sabha elections. She also
announced at the one-day AICC session here that soon she would come
out with "a code of auterity" to which all Congressmen will
have to abide.
Sonia Gandhi also said the Gujarat communal
carnage should be a lesson to all the Congress-ruled states that the
"most fundamental" duty of any government is to maintain
law and order and provide security to the people.
Referring to
the Goa Assembly mid-term poll taking place on May 30, she exuded
confidence that Goa would be the 15th states where the Congress will
form the Government since the Goans were all set to give "a
clear verdict in our favou to ensure secular legacy and religious
heritage of the state."
She said she has already told the
Congress chief minister that "any individual or organisation
preaching or practising politics of hatred must be dealt with
severely" and there must be no compromise in any
circumstances.
Referring to the economy in shambles affecting
all sections of the society badly, she accused the Vajpayee
Government of frittering away the fruits of economic progress by the
Congress governments. "Only in social harmony and equity the
economy can go and only Congress can take economy forward," she
said.
She also announced that soon she would create a council
of the Congress chief ministers to provide an institutionalised forum
for practising good governance.
Explaining that the Congress
had to support the Government in dealing with the cross-border
terrorism of Pakistan in this "critical hour", Sonia Gandhi
made it clear that it does not mean the party supports the Government
in any other area.
There should be no doubts, she said, that
"this government has revealed monumental incompetence"
corruption is rampant, it is "insensitive to need of people"
and this government "is marked by drift propelled by inactions
and sustained by nothing but greed of power."
She said
the Congress was "the only hope to lead the country from
darkness to light and pull it out of the abyss of political
paralysis, economic collapse and social ruin.
She laid stress
on the Government exploring all avenues for a peaceful settlement of
resolution of the Kashmir issue instead of rushing to any kind of
confrontation that endangers the country at large. This was perhaps
the Congress party's first indirect opposition to the war cries
coming from the ruling BJP and its government at the Centre.
Sonia
Gandhi stressed that the Centre should take the responsibility to
ensure elections to the Jammu and Kashmir are held on time and
without any kind of intimidation of the people.
The
officially-sponsored political resolution that was passed
subsequently by the AICC session was in tune with her remarks as it
squarely blamed the Vajpayee Government for its failure to ensure
internal security in Jammu and Kashmir and said this alone had made
India externally vulnerable. The Vajpayee Government has been "lax"
in vigilance at the borders, the resolution said.
The domestic
problems of Jammu and Kashmir have been "hugely compounded and
magnified" by the external dimensions of cross-border terrorism
and even invasion across the Line of Control, the resolution
said.
"This is not the way forward. The Congress prefers
the path of peace and pacific solution of issues. The Congress calls
on the government to explore all avenues for peaceful settlement of
issues," the resolution added.
GANG IN POWER: Senior
Congress leader Arjun Singh on Friday said India has been captured by
a "political gang" whose leadership is in the hands of the
RSS and whatever is happening in the government is being done by the
RSS while the government is only a silent spectator.
He was
moving a political resolution as approved by the Congress Working
Committee at the one-day AICC session that began here with the
clarion call of Congress President Sonia Gandhi to defeat communalism
destroying India's cultural heritage.
Arjun Singh said he kept
thinking on how to describe the present government until Friday
morning when he felt the apt description would be "rajnaitik
giroh (political gang."
"Desh par rajnaitik giroh ne
kabja kar liya hai aur aguvayee RSS kar raha hai. Jo bhi sarkar me ho
raha hai unke dwara ho raha hai aur sarkar mukdarshak hai," he
said while pointing out that this explains the four-year rule of the
BJP-led Government in the country and there should be no doubts about
it (koyee bhram nahi hona chahiye).
Instead of reading out the
lengthy resolution condemning BJP for playing communal card in
Gujarat as also touching upon the cross-border terrorism by Pakistan
plauging the nation's security, Arjun Singh who was helped by
volunteers to climb up the dias and walk to the mike preferred to
make only the introductory remarks since the resolution's copy was
already distributed to the delegates.
He also made it clear
that the BJP has manipulated to capture power on the basis of the
numbers mustered by forming a 24-party alliance as otehrwise he said
the BJP is not in power because of the people's mandate. He declared
that the BJP never got the people's mandate ever to rule in India and
will never get that mandate in future. END