Sonia Gandhi
She urged around 450 delegates to deliberate with an open mind but send out a single message of a strong organisation, resolve and unity. Noting that this shivir in this journey is an important step, she noted, “We are not oblivious to the recent failures nor are we oblivious to the struggle we have to undertake to win. We are not unaware of the expectations of the people.”
The Congress president asserted that all have gathered to take a collective and individual resolve to bring the party in the same position it once had and play the role that people expected it to play in these “deteriorating circumstances”.
Taking on the government, she said, it has become “painfully clear” what Modi and his colleagues really mean by their frequently-used slogan ‘maximum governance minimum government’. “It means keeping the country in a state of permanent polarisation, compelling people to live in a constant state of fear and insecurity. It means viciously targeting, victimising and often brutalising of minorities who are an integral part of our society and equal citizens of our republic,” she said. “It means using our society’s ageold pluralities to divide us and subverting the carefully nurtured idea of unity and diversity. It means threatening and intimidating political opponents, maligning their reputation, jailing them on flimsy pretexts and misusing investigative agencies,” Gandhi said, adding that it means eroding the independence and professionalism of all institutions of democracy. Gandhi also accused the Bjp-led government of “wholesale reinvention of history”, constant denigration of its leaders, especially Jawaharlal Nehru and the systematic move to distort, deny and destroy their contributions, their achievements and their sacrifices. “It means glorifying the killers of Mahatma Gandhi,” the Congress chief said. She also accused the Centre of “blatant undermining” of the principles the Constitution and its pillars of justice, liberty, equality, fraternity and
secularism. Gandhi alleged that the government was turning a blind eye to continued atrocities across the country on weaker sections, especially Dalits, Adivasis and women. She also charged that the Centre was using fear to make the bureaucracy, corporate India, sections of the civil society and the media fall in line.
She further said that diversionary tactics were being used and questioned the “utter silence” on the part of the “ever so eloquent prime minister when the healing touch is most needed”.