The Hindu : Front Page : UPA has repaired grave damage done to our secular polity and society: Sonia

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Monday, Feb 09, 2009
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UPA has repaired grave damage done to our secular polity and society: Sonia

Anita Joshua

“Ours is the voice of social justice, communal harmony and inclusiveness”

BJP cannot be effective in the war against terror
Opposition-ruled States taking credit for UPA programmes

— Photo: R.V. Moorthy

In poll mode: Congress president Sonia Gandhi with Defence Minister A.K. Antony and general secretary Rahul Gandhi at a party meeting in New Delhi on Sunday.

NEW DELHI: “Ready, prepared and confident,” the Congress on Sunday flagged off its campaign for a fresh mandate on the “strength” of the performance of the United Progressive Alliance government and with a renewed pledge to fight divisive forces.

Inaugurating the day-long national convention of Block Congress Committee and District Congress Committee presidents here, Congress president Sonia Gandhi set the agenda for the battle ahead by once again aligning India’s grand old party with the “aam aadmi” and advocating balanced growth.

Wrapping up the proceedings in the evening, she held out the hope of merit and not patronage being the criteria for candidate selection. Responding to views against seat adjustments, she explained that alliances were necessary but that should not stop the party’s foot soldiers from working to strengthen the organisation.

While asserting that the UPA had repaired the “grave damage done to our secular polity” and society by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, Ms. Gandhi said: “Theirs was the voice of polarisation, of division and hatred. Ours is the voice of social justice, communal harmony and inclusiveness. Theirs was the voice of a privileged few. Ours is the voice of the multitudes — the ‘aam aadmi’.”

Addressing the gathering first in English and then switching to Hindi to dwell on terrorism and the BJP’s ‘divisive’ agenda, Ms. Gandhi said India’s patience should not be seen as its weakness and flagged the former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, as the nation’s inspiration in the war against terror.

Taking on the BJP, she claimed that parties which divided people in the name of religion and interfered with personal lives could not be effective in the war against terror. The Congress alone, according to her, was in a position to fight terror because it was the only party which had the ability to carry every section of society with it.

Ms. Gandhi urged the DCC and BCC presidents to counter the alleged bid by Opposition-ruled States to take credit for flagship programmes launched by the UPA. “Non-Congress governments have been misleading the public by claiming the Centre’s programmes as their own.” And, unlike the NDA, the UPA did not discriminate against any State, she claimed.

Referring to the global meltdown, she said India was able to swim against the tide because of the public sector — the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru — and Indira Gandhi’s bold decision to nationalise banks. She also took credit on behalf of the party for the recent reduction in the prices of petroleum products; pointing out that the price of cooking gas had been cut for the first time.

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