Date:18/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/18/stories/2007111861891000.htm

National

BJP pursuing obstructive politics, says Sonia

Gargi Parsai

"In Opposition, we never crossed the limit"

NEW DELHI: With the Assembly elections due in Gujarat next month, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday sharply criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party for its “obstructive politics.”

“No words are strong enough to condemn the BJP’s attacks on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and on the Congress. We too were in opposition but never reacted beyond reasonable limits and always strove to maintain the dignity and decorum of Parliament,” Ms. Gandhi said in her opening remarks at the All-India Congress Committee meeting here.

Gandhian ideals

Referring to the party’s commemoration of Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha, she bemoaned that Gandhian ideals were under threat in “our own country.”

“They are under sustained assault in the State of his birth [Gujarat] and in other BJP-ruled States. Elsewhere, his yeoman contributions to the social emancipation and political empowerment of the weaker sections of society are being questioned,” she said taking on all parties that attacked Gandhiji.

As if in preparation for polls, Ms. Gandhi as also Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dwelt at length on the “achievements” of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government — be it in the economic growth, packages for the farm sector, the social sector and infrastructure schemes.

Ms. Gandhi, however, indicated that general elections were not round the corner as was being speculated, when she called upon her partymen to be prepared for the Assembly polls in 2008 and for the Lok Sabha polls in 2009.

Asserting that the Congress would not sacrifice its political space on the altar of coalition politics, Ms. Gandhi emphasised that the party was above individuals.

Those in the government and those holding high posts in the party owed their positions to the Congress, and they were accountable to party workers. There were several voices from among the delegates who urged the leadership to “regionalise Congress” instead of getting into alliances with regional parties.

Ms. Gandhi also warned workers against speaking out publicly on the party’s position once it took a stand.

She had only one regret: not extending reservation for women in Parliament so far.

The meeting unanimously endorsed the induction of Rahul Gandhi into the Congress Working Committee.