Road ahead more challenging than ever, our resilience under severe test: Sonia Gandhi at CPP meet

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 5

Seeking to assure cadres of meaningful reforms to make the party battle ready in the times ahead, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday admitted that the road ahead was more challenging than ever before and the collective resilience of Congress persons was under severe test.

She again offered to “do whatever is necessary to maintain party unity.”

Addressing a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party for the first time since the electoral setbacks in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab, Gandhi called for unity and told party MPs that she was working on reforms.

“The road ahead is more challenging than ever before. Our dedication and determination, our spirit of resilience is under severe test. Unity at all levels of our vast organisation is of paramount importance and speaking for myself, I am determined to do whatever is needed to ensure it. Our revival is not just a matter of importance to us alone—it is, in fact, essential for our democracy itself and society as well,” Gandhi said in the presence of former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

Acknowledging some latent and some vocal intra-party anxieties over repeated election losses, Gandhi said she was very well aware how disappointed the workers were at the recent election results.

“They have been both shocking and painful,” the Congress chief said.

Referring to the recent CWC meet which discussed the party’s performance, Gandhi said she had met other colleagues and was “working on pertinent suggestions to strengthen the Congress”.

Holding a ‘Shivir’ is also very necessary because that is where the views of a larger number of colleagues and party representatives will be heard, she assured.

Dedicating a small part of her speech to Congress revival, a pressing challenge with party’s Rajya Sabha numbers plummeting to 29, Gandhi attacked the government for pursuing a divisive agenda and targeting the opposition leaders.

“The divisive and polarizing agenda of the ruling party and its leaders has now become a regular feature of the political discourse in state after state. History, not just ancient but also contemporary, is mischievously distorted and facts are maliciously invented to add fuel to this agenda. It is for us all to stand up and confront these forces of hate and prejudice,” Gandhi said.

She alleged that the government continued to target the opposition, its leaders and workers and the full might of the state machinery had been unleashed against them.

“Maximum governance to those in power clearly means spreading maximum fear and intimidation. Such blatant threats and tactics will not frighten or silence us nor will we get cowed down,” the Congress chief said attacking the government for a “precarious situation of the MSMEs, non-fulfilment of promises to farmers, rising fuel prices and delayed MNREGA payments.”

“MSMEs are in a most precarious condition. There is no sign whatsoever that the commitments made to the farmers are going to be fulfilled in any significant manner. Prices of cooking gas and oil, petrol, diesel, fertilizers and other essential commodities have risen to an unbearable limitndash;and continue to rise,” said Gandhi asking leaders to sustain the recently launched nationwide ‘Mehngai-mukt Bharat’ campaign.

She also took a swipe at the government for taking credit for the Congress ideas noting, “In matters of governance, it is inevitable that some do the real work and lay the foundations while others claim the credit. I am glad that at least two landmark initiatives of the Congress-led UPA government much criticized by no less a person than the Prime Minister have turned out to be saviours for crores in the last two years.”

Her reference was to the National Food Security Act and Mahatma Gandhi NREGA.

Gandhi also lamented that despite repeated attempts, the opposition has been unable to get the Government to agree to a discussion on the situation on our borders, a discussion that could only have deepened the sense of collective resolve.

She, however, added with satisfaction the “rediscovery of the principle of non-alignment as a foundational principle of the nation’s foreign policy that was criticized so much earlier.”

Gandhi also called for securing the future of students back from Ukraine and a campaign to prevent government’s so called asset monetization.