With the focus on BJP, Congress leaders on Saturday urged the partymen to shed their differences and get united in their fight against the ruling party saying “only the Congress can defeat the Congress and not anyone else”.
The party at its ongoing 84th plenary session also resolved to adopt a “pragmatic approach” for cooperation with all like-minded parties and evolve a common workable programme to defeat the BJP-RSS in the 2019 general election.
During the course former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi urged the partymen to extend all support to the new party chief and her son Rahul Gandhi who has taken over the reins in “such difficult times”. The two-day plenary session is being attended by senior Congress leaders including former party president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh.
Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and former Union Minister Ajay Maken said no one has the power to defeat the Congress and only the Congress can defeat the Congress.
“A resurgent Congress alone shall win back the idea of India as envisioned by the founding fathers of our nation,” read the draft resolution moved by Kharge. The party said it was prepared for making sacrifices required to defend the ethos of the Constitution and “we will purge the polity of the aberrations witnessed during the BJP regime, which has failed to honour its commitments to the people of India”.
Addressing the gathering, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the State Assembly elections will see a “secularism versus communalism” contest and the Congress will emerge victorious. He also said the poll results will work as a “stepping stone” for the 2019 general elections. “No one can stop Rahul Gandhi (Congress president) from becoming the country’s prime minister after the next general polls,” Siddaramaiah said.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also said that “Hindutva is not Hinduism” and “we must not surrender the Hindu space to the BJP”.
The party also gave a clarion call to its rank and file to rise to the occasion and defend the foundational values of the Republic and constitutional democracy.
The political resolution called for reverting to the old practice of paper ballot as adopted by other major democracies to help restore the credibility of the electoral process. This, it said, was necessary as there were misgivings on “misuse” of EVMs to “manipulate the outcome contrary to popular verdict”.
It also said that the BJP’s move of simultaneous elections is “misplaced” and is “incompatible with the Constitution as also impractical”. “It will have serious implications, which must be thoroughly enquired into, and a national consensus built,” it said.
Facing the challenge of defections in the party, with BJP poaching many of its leaders, the party sought debarring defectors from contesting elections for six years to check the “brazen misuse of money power to create political instability”. The party hit out at the BJP-RSS ideology, alleging that it was creating an environment of “distrust, fear and intimidation” in pursuit of their “insidious and divisive agenda”. “The Congress condemns the BJP government for brazen abuse of power and misuse of central agencies for targeted political vendetta to harass, humiliate and persecute its political opponents.
“The Congress party warns the BJP and its government that its undemocratic methods and acts to curtail liberty, freedom of expression and violation of fundamental rights of its citizens as enshrined in the Constitution will be strongly resisted,” the resolution said.
On corruption, the party said that the BJP government “lacks sincerity in fighting corruption, to ensure transparency and accountability. This is underscored by its non-appointment of Lokpal”. The party also said the judicial system needed urgent reforms for effective and timely dispensation of justice and said the huge pendency of cases and providing affordable justice remains a big challenge that needs to be addressed.
The resolution also called upon the media to restore the balance in national narrative to safeguard democracy.
The political resolution also talked about deteriorating internal and external security environment, youth, women empowerment and social justice.
It also highlighted the atrocities on dalits, minorities and tribals, alleging that they are living under the general fear of insecurity under the BJP rule.
Besides a three-member delegation of the Bangladesh Awami League also met the Congress leadership and discussed a wide range of issues, including the ongoing cooperation between the two countries. The delegation led by presidium member Abdul Razzaque is attending the plenary session.