Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s personalised attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for adopting the ordinance route and undermining democratic institutions in her introductory remarks at the party’s working committee meeting on Tuesday has reaffirmed that the decade-long hostility between the two leaders and their parties has only intensified over time.
Although it is normal for an opposition leader to criticise the government’s policies, it was certainly unusual for Sonia Gandhi to name Modi in this connection in her address to the members of the party’s highest decision-making body. The Congress Working Committee meeting is generally not seen as the forum to launch such a direct attack against the prime minister. Such barbs are usually reserved for election meetings, public rallies and parliamentary debates.
A senior Congress office-bearer explained that when their party was last in the Opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart Atal Behari Vajpayee was the prime minister. Given the cordial relations between Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi, there was no occasion for the Congress president to hit out the then prime minister, he pointed out.
“But there is a difference between Vajpayee and Modi,” the Congress leader added.
In direct firing line
Sonia Gandhi set the stage for a bitter confrontation between the Congress and the ruling alliance, when she slammed the Modi government for promulgating as many as 10 ordinances during its seven-month tenure which, she pointed out, “roughly translates to one ordinance every 28 days”.
“Today’s government is operating through a perilous notion that ordinances constitute good governance,” said Sonia Gandhi. “We have to communicate effectively that the Modi government is not serving national interest by bypassing parliamentary scrutiny and debate.”
In this context, she specifically referred to the changes made in the Land Acquisition Act and the ordinance on coal mines. The Congress president accused the government of effectively destroying the landmark Land Act and bringing back the law passed by the British in 1894 through the backdoor. Similarly, she said, the ordinance on the coal mines has “surreptitiously undone the spirit of nationalisation of coal mines that had crucial safeguards”.
The Modi government was also in Sonia Gandhi’s firing line for its dictatorial tendencies as well as its anti-farmer and anti-poor policies. Pinning down Modi for his inability to curb prices and for giving a marginal increase in the minimum support prices to farmers for their agriculture produce, the Congress president pointed out, “While the prime minister makes much of lowering inflation, he doesn’t mention how he has lowered the income of farmers.”
‘Real communal agenda’
While the BJP government’s policies were the chief target of her attack, Sonia Gandhi also used the opportunity to question Modi’s silence on the spate of communal statements made by BJP MPs and ministers. “What is equally, if not more, alarming is that in the last few weeks, the true colours and intentions of the prime minister and the BJP have become abundantly clear,” she said.
“The prime minister has chosen to ignore these disturbing statements and speeches, raising questions on his real agenda, an agenda that causes sharp division, mistrust and hatred among communities, an agenda that can only cause grievous harm to our nation’s pluralistic and secular ethos,” she said.
A united Opposition had derailed the winter session of Parliament to demand a clarification from the prime minister about the religious conversion programmes conducted by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates. The coming budget session is expected to witness a similar show of solidarity as all Opposition parties have decided to block the National Democratic Alliance government’s amended Land Acquisition Bill.
Reviving pro-poor image
The ruling alliance will not have any problem pushing through the Bill in the Lok Sabha where it has a comfortable majority, but it will run into trouble in the Rajya Sabha where it is outnumbered by the opposition.
The Congress has already directed its state units to organise mass rallies and public protests against the NDA government’s version of the Land Bill in the run-up to the budget session. Finding itself on the back foot after its humiliating defeat in the last general election and subsequent assembly polls, the Congress has decided to make this the centrepiece of its agitation in the hope that its focus on the NDA government’s policies on farmers will help revive its “pro-farmer, pro-poor” image.
Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi are particularly sensitive about the Land Acquisition Bill, which was dubbed as their “pet project” and was pushed through by the United Progressive Alliance government at their insistence.
Protecting Rahul Gandhi again
There had been considerable speculation in the run-up to the Tuesday meeting that the working committee could elevate Rahul Gandhi as party president. However, his elevation was not on the agenda.
“Rahul Gandhi is our vice president and he is playing a very prominent role in the party,” Congress general secretary Ambika Soni said after the meeting. “He is also guiding us from upfront on many organisation matters.”
She said the discussions focused on the strengthening the party, structural changes in the organisation, and a massive membership drive planned to be undertaken through a nationwide mass contact programme.
Party insiders maintained that since the party is slated to elect the party president later this year, it decided to defer the move until then. While there is a section in the Congress, including senior party leader Digvijaya Singh, which wants Rahul Gandhi to take charge of the party, it was felt that it would be more appropriate to effect this change through an election.
Moreover, this was not thought to be an opportune time for Rahul Gandhi to take over as Congress president. Delhi assembly elections are round the corner and, according to poll surveys, the Congress is headed for another electoral rout. If Rahul Gandhi was handed over the reins of the party at this juncture, he would once again find himself in the dock for leading the Congress to yet another humiliating defeat.
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Although it is normal for an opposition leader to criticise the government’s policies, it was certainly unusual for Sonia Gandhi to name Modi in this connection in her address to the members of the party’s highest decision-making body. The Congress Working Committee meeting is generally not seen as the forum to launch such a direct attack against the prime minister. Such barbs are usually reserved for election meetings, public rallies and parliamentary debates.
A senior Congress office-bearer explained that when their party was last in the Opposition, Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart Atal Behari Vajpayee was the prime minister. Given the cordial relations between Vajpayee and Sonia Gandhi, there was no occasion for the Congress president to hit out the then prime minister, he pointed out.
“But there is a difference between Vajpayee and Modi,” the Congress leader added.
In direct firing line
Sonia Gandhi set the stage for a bitter confrontation between the Congress and the ruling alliance, when she slammed the Modi government for promulgating as many as 10 ordinances during its seven-month tenure which, she pointed out, “roughly translates to one ordinance every 28 days”.
“Today’s government is operating through a perilous notion that ordinances constitute good governance,” said Sonia Gandhi. “We have to communicate effectively that the Modi government is not serving national interest by bypassing parliamentary scrutiny and debate.”
In this context, she specifically referred to the changes made in the Land Acquisition Act and the ordinance on coal mines. The Congress president accused the government of effectively destroying the landmark Land Act and bringing back the law passed by the British in 1894 through the backdoor. Similarly, she said, the ordinance on the coal mines has “surreptitiously undone the spirit of nationalisation of coal mines that had crucial safeguards”.
The Modi government was also in Sonia Gandhi’s firing line for its dictatorial tendencies as well as its anti-farmer and anti-poor policies. Pinning down Modi for his inability to curb prices and for giving a marginal increase in the minimum support prices to farmers for their agriculture produce, the Congress president pointed out, “While the prime minister makes much of lowering inflation, he doesn’t mention how he has lowered the income of farmers.”
‘Real communal agenda’
While the BJP government’s policies were the chief target of her attack, Sonia Gandhi also used the opportunity to question Modi’s silence on the spate of communal statements made by BJP MPs and ministers. “What is equally, if not more, alarming is that in the last few weeks, the true colours and intentions of the prime minister and the BJP have become abundantly clear,” she said.
“The prime minister has chosen to ignore these disturbing statements and speeches, raising questions on his real agenda, an agenda that causes sharp division, mistrust and hatred among communities, an agenda that can only cause grievous harm to our nation’s pluralistic and secular ethos,” she said.
A united Opposition had derailed the winter session of Parliament to demand a clarification from the prime minister about the religious conversion programmes conducted by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its affiliates. The coming budget session is expected to witness a similar show of solidarity as all Opposition parties have decided to block the National Democratic Alliance government’s amended Land Acquisition Bill.
Reviving pro-poor image
The ruling alliance will not have any problem pushing through the Bill in the Lok Sabha where it has a comfortable majority, but it will run into trouble in the Rajya Sabha where it is outnumbered by the opposition.
The Congress has already directed its state units to organise mass rallies and public protests against the NDA government’s version of the Land Bill in the run-up to the budget session. Finding itself on the back foot after its humiliating defeat in the last general election and subsequent assembly polls, the Congress has decided to make this the centrepiece of its agitation in the hope that its focus on the NDA government’s policies on farmers will help revive its “pro-farmer, pro-poor” image.
Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi are particularly sensitive about the Land Acquisition Bill, which was dubbed as their “pet project” and was pushed through by the United Progressive Alliance government at their insistence.
Protecting Rahul Gandhi again
There had been considerable speculation in the run-up to the Tuesday meeting that the working committee could elevate Rahul Gandhi as party president. However, his elevation was not on the agenda.
“Rahul Gandhi is our vice president and he is playing a very prominent role in the party,” Congress general secretary Ambika Soni said after the meeting. “He is also guiding us from upfront on many organisation matters.”
She said the discussions focused on the strengthening the party, structural changes in the organisation, and a massive membership drive planned to be undertaken through a nationwide mass contact programme.
Party insiders maintained that since the party is slated to elect the party president later this year, it decided to defer the move until then. While there is a section in the Congress, including senior party leader Digvijaya Singh, which wants Rahul Gandhi to take charge of the party, it was felt that it would be more appropriate to effect this change through an election.
Moreover, this was not thought to be an opportune time for Rahul Gandhi to take over as Congress president. Delhi assembly elections are round the corner and, according to poll surveys, the Congress is headed for another electoral rout. If Rahul Gandhi was handed over the reins of the party at this juncture, he would once again find himself in the dock for leading the Congress to yet another humiliating defeat.
