‘Minorities being targeted in Valley’
NEW DELHI, Oct 16: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today condemned the civilian killings in Jammu and Kashmir, and said minorities were clearly being targeted in the Valley, adding that it was up to the Union Government to restore social peace and harmony in the Union Territory.
In her address at the Congress Working Committee meet (CWC), the Congress President also slammed the Union Government over the India-China border situation, and questioned the silence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.
“In recent days, there has been a sudden spurt in killings in Jammu and Kashmir. Minorities clearly have been targeted. This must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. We have done so and I do so again this morning,” the interim president of Congress said.
“J&K has been a Union Territory for two years. The entire responsibility for bringing the perpetrators of these barbaric crimes to justice is that of the Union Government. Restoring social peace and harmony and confidence amongst the people in J&K rests with the Modi Government as well,” she said.
Sonia Gandhi also slammed the Government for its silence on the ongoing India-China border dispute that has stretched for months and even seen brutal attack.
“We face serious challenges on our borders and on other fronts. The Prime Minister told the opposition leaders last year that there had not been any occupation of our territory by China and his silence ever since is costing our nation dearly,” she said.
She also said that foreign policy has become a “diabolical instrument of electoral mobilization and polarization” for the present Government.
“I am a full-time and hands-on Congress president,” Sonia Gandhi asserted in a clear message to the G23 leaders, some of whom have raised issues regarding lack of leadership and absence of an elected party chief.
Gandhi said the revival of the party can only happen with “unity, self-control, discipline and by keeping the party’s interests paramount”.
In a mild reprimand to those G23 leaders who have been airing their criticism of the party in the media, the Congress chief said she has always appreciated frankness and “there is no need to speak to me through the media”.
“So, let us all have a free and honest discussion. But what should get communicated outside the four walls of this room is the collective decision of the CWC,” she said in her opening remarks at the meeting.
Her remarks came after senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal had recently said that at the moment, there was no president in the party, so it was not known who was taking decisions.
Ghulam Nabi Azad and Sibal, both members of the ‘Group of 23 leaders’, who sought major organisational overhaul last year, had also demanded an early meeting of the CWC to discuss the declining fortunes of the party in the wake of recent defections.
At the meeting, Gandhi also placed on the table the party’s organisational election schedule before the CWC, with sources indicating that the process could be long-drawn and the elections to the post of Congress president will be held in September 2022.
“I am, if you will allow me to say so, a full-time and hands-on Congress president,” Sonia Gandhi asserted.
The 74-year-old leader also pointed out that in the last two years, a large number of Congress leaders, particularly the younger ones, have taken on leadership roles in communicating party policies and programmes to the people.
“Never have we let issues of public importance and concern go unaddressed. You are aware that I have been taking them up with the Prime Minister as have Dr Manmohan Singh and Rahul (Gandhi)ji. I have been interacting with like-minded political parties regularly,” she said and added that the Opposition parties have issued joint statements on national issues and coordinated strategy in Parliament as well.
About the forthcoming Assembly elections, the Congress chief said the party’s preparations have already started a while back and asserted that though there were many challenges, “if we are united, disciplined and focus on the party’s interests alone, I am confident that we will do well”.
She also wished Manmohan Singh, who is presently in AIIMS, a full and speedy recovery.
Elaborating on the issues facing the country, the Congress chief noted the CWC is meeting in the background of the continuing agitation by farmers and that it has been over a year since the “three black (farm) laws were bulldozed through Parliament”.
Referring to the Lakhimpur Kheri violence in which four farmers were mowed down by an SUV on October 3, she said the shocking incident shows the mindset of the BJP as to how it perceives the farmers’ movement and how it has been dealing with this determined struggle by the farmers to protect their lives and livelihoods.
Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra, who has been named in an FIR, was arrested on Saturday by the Uttar Pradesh Police in connection with the mowing down of four farmers in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri.
In her remarks, Gandhi also alleged that the government’s only answer for economic recovery was selling off national assets and its single-point agenda was “becho, becho, becho (sell, sell, sell)”.
Noting that the Government has changed its vaccine procurement policy since the CWC last met in May, she said this has been done in response to the demands of the States and was one of those rare occasions when the States were heard and the country benefitted.
“Even so, cooperative federalism remains only a slogan and the Centre loses no opportunity to put non-BJP states at a disadvantage,” she alleged.
Gandhi also flagged concerns over the sudden spurt in killings in Jammu and Kashmir and said minorities there have been targeted. “This must be condemned in the strongest possible terms,” she said.
The entire responsibility for bringing the perpetrators of these barbaric crimes to justice is that of the Union Government, Gandhi asserted.
Restoring social peace and harmony and confidence amongst the people in J&K rests with the Modi Government too, she said.
She also hit out at the Government over its foreign policy and said a broad consensus that had been there on it always has been damaged because of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “continued reluctance to take the Opposition into confidence in any meaningful manner”.
“Foreign policy has become a diabolical instrument of electoral mobilisation and polarisation,” Gandhi alleged.
“We face serious challenges on our borders and other fronts. The Prime Minister telling the opposition leaders last year that there had not been any occupation of our territory by China and his silence ever since is costing our nation dearly.”
Sonia Gandhi, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Chief Ministers Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh and Charanjit Channi of Punjab attended the meeting — the first such physical meeting of the CWC since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic.
G23 leaders — Azad and Anand Sharma — were among those present at the meeting at the All India Congress Committee headquarters here. (Agencies)
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