Sonia Gandhi lambasts Modi government

CWC has extended Sonia Gandhi's tenure as party president by a year

Lambasting the NDA government for mismanagement of the economy, the highest decision making body of the Congress, today made it clear that the constitutional amendment to the Goods and Service Tax bill can only be passed on two conditions, when the government addresses its concerns on the bill and its demands for resignation of BJP ministers and Chief ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is met.

The Opposition Congress enjoys numerical strength in the Rajya Sabha and the party unambiguously stated that "nothing has changed between the just concluded parliament session and now"; implicitly indicating that it would resort to disrupting the house whenever a session was called whether Special session or even the Winter session.

The government has been proposing reconvening the Parliament to pass the GST bill. Addressing the media post the daylong CWC meeting at the AICC headquarter's today, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said, "The Monsoon session was disrupted not because of any bill or GST but because our demands for resignations was not met. That demand remains."

 

Today's CWC was also critical of the Narendra Modi led Government's inability to rein in prices. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi made it a point to ask Former Finance minister P Chidambaram to explain the price rise scenario in the UPA regime vis a vis the present NDA government. While the UPA it was stated had managed to keep consumer prices in check despite exorbitant global crude oil prices, the Modi government had not passed on the benefit of reduced oil prices to the consumer. Economist and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh too expressed concerns on the current economic scenario.

Infact Congress President Sonia Gandhi launched an attack on the Modi government in her opening address, ascribing its one year in office to nothing more than "hawaa baazi" (empty talk). Lambasting the government Gandhi said, "the economy is on a downward slide while prices continue on their unrelenting rise", adding that the Modi Government has "failed abysmally to match words with deeds, to match media events with actual accomplishments."

In the Resolution too that was passed at the end of the CWC meeting, "grave concern" was expressed about "slowdown of economic growth, decline in exports for eight consecutive months, sharp decline in credit growth, sluggish investments and abysmal growth in job creation."

This apart Rahul Gandhi urged the party to highlight failures of the government on tackling the current agrarian crisis, farmer suicides, droughts and floods. The CWC as a whole congratulated Rahul Gandhi for spearheading the agitation on the Land Acquisition bill which had led to a "victory" of the Congress in forcing the NDA to scrap its anti- farmer legislation. The party will be holding a massive rally near the Delhi- Haryana border on September 20 to mark the event. Rahul Gandhi today urged the party to be vigilant to ensure that the 2013 Land Act provisions are not diluted by state specific legislations.

The Congress Working Committee, formally today also extended Sonia Gandhi's tenure as party President till December 2016. It thereby put to rest all speculation of elevation of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. The party's organisational polls have also been extended by a year. Party Constitutional amendments that were proposed and ratified include, increasing the reservation for weaker sections -- SC, ST, OBC, minorities and women -- in party posts from 20 to 50 per cent; reducing the term of membership from five years to three years and reintroducing the concept of 'active members' - to ensure larger numbers of enrolment. Those who enrolled more than 25 members would be regarded as active members and would be eligible to be delegates and members at the block committee level, then the state PCCs and thereafter the AICC.