Cong calls for 'new freedom struggle' against Modi govt at CWC meeting

Invoking Mahata Gandhi's 'Quit India' call on his birth anniversary, the Congress Tuesday called for a "new freedom struggle" against what it called the Modi government's politics of "polarisation and intimidation".

At a meeting of its apex decision-making body CWC at a venue where 'Quit India' resolution was adopted in 1942 under Mahatma Gandhi's leadership, the party also resolved to fight the RSS's "blatant hypocrisy", saying it vilified and rejected the father of the nation during his lifetime, but was now brazenly proclaiming itself to be his champion.

"Its (RSS's) ideology that was responsible for spreading the atmosphere of hate that led to the Mahatma's tragic assassination," Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said quoting the resolution.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC), under the party president Rahul Gandhi's leadership, adopted a resolution urging the partymen to spread the message that it was only the Congress that truly embodies the ethos of a liberal, secular and an inclusive 'Bharat'.

In another resolution, the CWC condemned the use of force against protesting farmers on the outskirts of the national capital.

The CWC meeting at Maharashtra's Sevagram, the abode of Mahatma Gandhi during his last 12 years of his life, assumes significance as it comes more than 75 years after the first meeting convened in 1942 under the Mahatma's leadership to adopt the 'Quit India' resolution. Another CWC meeting was held here in 1948.

The meeting was attended by several top party leaders including former prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The CWC resolved that "a new freedom struggle is the urgent need of the hour".

It called for "a massive movement to combat the forces of divisiveness and prejudice, to confront the Modi government whose politics is the politics of threat and intimidation, the politics of polarization and divisiveness, the politics of crushing debate and dissent, the politics of imposing an artificial uniformity in a nation of extraordinary diversity, the politics of hate and vendetta".

The CWC also called upon the entire nation to fearlessly defend and uphold India's foundational values and idea of India, which Mahatma Gandhi stood for, lived for and even sacrificed his life for.

The committer resolved to call upon "all countrymen and women, particularly the young, to determinedly fight the politics of fear, intimidation, lies and deception- to never bend, to never stop; till we achieve our goal."
"One may borrow the Mahatma's spectacles for publicity campaigns, but implementing his vision will remain unfulfilled unless his principles are followed," the resolution said in an apparent reference to the logo for the government's 'Swachh Bharat' campaign
Referring to the police action on farmers on the Delhi-UP border, Surjewala said, "We condemn the autocratic Modi government and the prime minister who is drunk with power. We express solidarity with the farmers and resolve to redress their grievances if voted to power."