The Hindu : NDA Govt. a failure, says Sonia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 09, 2002

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NDA Govt. a failure, says Sonia

By Anita Joshua

The Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, arriving for the party Chief Ministers' meeting in Mount Abu on Friday. — Photo: Gopal Sungar

Mt. Abu (Rajasthan) NOV. 8. Focussed clearly on the Gujarat elections and the nine States going to the polls thereafter, the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, today urged the Congress Chief Ministers — 14 of them — to give a ``collective momentum'' to the implementation of welfare programmes to consolidate the party's hold in the Congress-ruled States, and oust the BJP and its regional allies elsewhere during the run-up to the national elections.

Inaugurating the fourth Congress Chief Ministers' conclave here this morning, she said the party had to fulfil the expectations of a nation that was ``looking at us to take the country from stagnation to growth, from strife to harmony, and from darkness to light''.

Given the ``comprehensive failure'' of the BJP-led coalition at the Centre, she said the people expected the Congress to provide a ``Government that will govern, and lead an administration that will administer''.

`Reject politics of hate'

Though Ms. Gandhi mainly dwelt on administrative issues — a review of the performance of Congress-ruled States being the ``primary agenda'' of such conclaves — she said economic success could be sustained only if ``bigotry is defeated'', a clear reference to Gujarat.

Confident that the people of Gujarat would ``reject the politics of hate, violence and communal polarisation'', she said her party would fight the ``forces which will stoop to any level in word and deed to spread poison and inflame society'' with the message of ``religious tolerance and understanding, social reconciliation and amity''. Setting the tone and tenor for the two-day meeting, Ms. Gandhi asked the Chief Ministers to be more ``self-critical and introspective than we usually are at such meetings'' while reviewing the implementation of the Guwahati resolve.

``We are not here to exaggerate our achievements nor have we come to find fault with ourselves,'' she said arguing that identification of shortcomings was part of effective action.

She spoke about gender sensitisation, local self-government, fiscal discipline, power reforms and revenue collection.

On the gender issue, she said she attached a great deal of importance to the action plan drawn up at the recent Mahila Sashaktikaran Adhiveshan in Delhi.

Also, more needed to be done to bring about a visible and tangible improvement in the lives of the Dalits, Adivasis, religious minorities, and backward classes.

She made known her sense of disquiet at the ``progressive weakening of the Centre'' while reiterating her party's commitment to the decentralisation of governance. ``India needs a strong Centre, strong States, and strong panchayats and nagarpalikas; all supporting and deriving strength from each other.''

Acknowledging the fiscal problem facing most States, her advise to the Congress-ruled States — all of which have embarked upon the ``very ambitious'' programme of introducing ``far-reaching reforms'' in the power sector — was to provide reliable power at affordable rates to all.

And the ``benefits from these reforms must be demonstratively visible to the people within a reasonable period of time''.

On the ``politically contentious'' issue of restructuring public expenditure, while asking the Chief Ministers to persist with this exercise, Ms. Gandhi stressed the need to give it a strong and visible pro-poor orientation.

Quoting experts, she said revenue collection could be increased at existing tax rates by making the tax collection machinery more efficient.

Complete with power-point presentations, her speech called for a purposeful discussion. Later, the Chief Ministers presented their report cards that could well decide the future of the Congress at the hustings in the not-so-distant future.

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