Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 4: Even while claiming that the Congress and the INDIA alliance were ready to face the Parliamentary elections at any time, the grand old party on Monday said the very talk of a possible early elections was a clear sign of panic in the BJP and the NDA camp.
Addressing a joint press conference with communication chief Jairam Ramesh, the Congress general secretary-organisation (GSO) K.C. Venugopal said the party was ready for early election. “We are prepared for anything. If they want an early election means they have totally panicked. After INDIA alliance formation and our three meetings, they have totally panicked,” Venugopal said.
A meeting of the newly constituted Congress Working Committee (CWC) and a public rally in Hyderabad, meeting of floor leaders of INDIA bloc at party chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s official residence in Delhi and a meeting by the parliamentary strategy group to be chaired by Sonia Gandhi ahead of the five-day long special session of Parliament, the Congress on Monday made a series of political announcements, even as it categorically rejected the idea of “one nation one election.”
Asked about the party’s future roadmap with regard to its opposition to simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, Assemblies and local bodies, he said the party would have a joint strategy with partners of the INDIA bloc. Ramesh said ‘one nation, one election’ was impossible without amending the Constitution, and to do so, there had to be consensus.
“In 2017, there was a paper of the NITI Ayog, the topic had been discussed extensively in a paper and it mentions what amendments are to be made. But if you see the terms of reference of the latest committee, they [Narendra Modi government] seem to have decided to conduct ‘one nation one election,” he alleged.
The party’s first announcement was about holding the first meeting of the newly formed CWC in Hyderabad on September 16 and an extended CWC meeting a day later, in which Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chiefs, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leaders and office-bearers of Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) will participate.
With a clear focus on the upcoming Telangana election, the top leadership will launch five guarantees for the State at a public rally in Hyderabad on September 17. “After the public meeting, the Congress president will flag off the cavalcade of CWC members, PCC presidents and CLP leaders who will go to each of the 119 Assembly constituencies and spend the night,” Venugopal said.
“While MPs will be exempted because of Parliament session on September 18, other leaders will take our guarantee programme door to door, have lunch with influencers and have a ‘Bharat Jodo padayatra’ in the evening in every constituency,” he added.
The Congress GSO also informed that on Tuesday the party’s parliamentary strategy group would meet at Ms Gandhi’s official residence at 5 p.m. and this would be followed by a meeting of floor leaders of like-minded parties at Kharge’s residence at 8 p.m. “As far as issues to be raised in the special Parliament, we are meeting tomorrow and will decide. But it will all be current issues,” he said when asked if the latest charges against the Adani group would be raised in the five-day session.
He also announced a symbolic yatra across 722 districts of the country to commemorate the first anniversary of ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ (BJY) on September 7. “The BJY was one of the reasons why we won big in Karnataka and it is also the reason for the political atmosphere changing in the country,” Venugopal said. When asked if the second edition of the BJY on the East-West corridor would be launched on October 2, he said, “Please wait and see what happens.”
Meanwhile, even as Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin – at the centre of a storm over his remarks against “Sanatana Dharma” reiterated on Monday that he would “repeat the same thing again and again,” the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee distanced herself from Stalin and supported the stand taken by the Congress on the issue that all the religions must be given equal respect.
The Trinamool Congress chief — who had recited scriptures ahead of the assembly polls in face of BJP allegations of minority appeasement — declared, “We should not be involved in any matter which might hurt a section of people.”
“As far as the remarks (of Udhayanidhi Stalin) is concerned, he is a junior. From my side, I am not clear about why and on what grounds he has made the comment. I feel that each and every religion should be equally respected,” Ms Banerjee said, hours after her party spokesman called the comments “unfortunate.”
“I respect the people of Tamil Nadu and South India. But my humble request to them is that to respect all as every religion has separate sentiments,” Ms Banerjee said. Pointing to the “Unity in Diversity” and India’s inclusive secularism, Ms Banerjee said, “I respect the Sanatana Dharma and we derive our learnings from the Vedas… We have so many purohits and our state government offers pension to them… We have so many temples across the country. We visit temples, mosques, and churches”.
Stalin in clarifying his stand said he had only “condemned caste differences.” “Day before yesterday I spoke at a function about it (‘sanatana dharma’). Whatever I said… I will repeat the same thing again and again. I included all the religions and not just Hinduism… I spoke condemning the caste differences, that is all,” he said.
Earlier too he had stressed that his comments were to be read against the backdrop of caste hierarchy and accused the BJP of twisting his words amid fear over growing opposition unity.
