The Hindu : Ours will be firm but dignified campaign, says Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 06, 2004

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Ours will be firm but dignified campaign, says Sonia

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 5. The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today virtually drew the contours of the party's campaign in the coming general election, underlining that the battle would be more than just "exposing" the Bharatiya Janata Party and the National Democratic Alliance Government it led.

Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party on the concluding day of the last session of the 13th Lok Sabha, Ms. Gandhi referred to the "drawbacks and failures" of the BJP-led Government she had spelt out in her speech on the motion of no-confidence in August last year and the "flip-flop" witnessed in the fields of defence, education, economy and foreign policy.

Sketching the outlines of the campaign, Ms. Gandhi said the party would conduct a "firm but dignified campaign, unlike the BJP whose campaign is always full of abuse, hate and discord." "This does not mean that we should be defensive," she said.

The party had already begun the process of identifying the candidates and in different States it was negotiating alliances based on a convergence of policies and programmes.

On the Congress' role in Parliament, she said: "We have, I think, fulfilled the role of the principal Opposition in a constructive and effective manner.''

Her party would highlight the "failures" of the BJP-led NDA Government, which it had been doing for the past four-and-half years.

The Congress, she said, must reiterate that the NDA was only a front for the BJP which had used it to push its "divisive agenda forward." In their "lust for power," the NDA allies had kept quiet and gone along.

"We must also expose the Prime Minister for his constantly shifting stance on all major national issues — Gujarat, Ayodhya, Pakistan, to name just three instances. Above all for shielding and defending corrupt colleagues," she said.

At the same time, she said, the party would highlight its "own vision, our own agenda, our own priorities." The achievements by India so far, for instance, in agriculture, industry, science and technology was facilitated by the political leadership and direction given by successive Congress Governments.

She referred to Rajiv Gandhi twice. One was an apparent reference to the Delhi High Court judgment in the Bofors case and the other on Rajiv's vision of India in the 21st century.

"When Rajiv Gandhi spoke of the 21st century and of IT and telecom, he was attacked for being elitist. Yet today, the tone of those critics has changed dramatically," she said.

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