Headlines
Modi government has failed to match words with deeds: Sonia
New Delhi, Sep 8
Congress president Sonia
Gandhi on Tuesday mounted a frontal attack on Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, terming his promises as nothing more than "hawabaazi"(hot air) and
his government failing abysmally to match its words with deeds.
Addressing
the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting here, Sonia Gandhi accused
Modi of "unedifying flip-flops" and lack of a coherent policy vis-a-vis
Pakistan.
She said the Modi government had chosen to disregard
the will of parliament and "displayed an inexplicable hurry to snatch
land from our farmers". She also accused the Modi government of being
"controlled and directed" by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh. (RSS).
Sonia
called upon the party to institutionalise a mechanism to reward hard
working workers and favoured affirmative action to give greater say to
the marginalised sections in the party.
Sonia Gandhi, who began
her speech by referring to the "draconian land ordinance" of the Modi
government, said the U-turn on the ordinance is evidence that the
government is out of touch with ground realities.
"It has become
painfully clear that most of the pledges made by the prime minister
during his election campaign were nothing more than 'hawa baazi'. The
Modi government has failed abysmally to match words with deeds, to match
media events with actual accomplishments, to match headlines with
substance," she said.
Sonia Gandhi gave credit to party
vice-president Rahul Gandhi for compelling the government to withdraw
amendments on the land bill.
"Thanks to our party's sustained
campaign, the government has been compelled to withdraw its anti-farmer
amendments. The credit for this goes to every Congress worker who, under
Rahul's active guidance, carried out a sustained agitation," she said.
"Similar
campaigns will now need to be mounted against the assault on tribal
welfare, on women and child welfare, on labour laws, on laws that
protect the environment and forests, on RTI and on our flagship
initiatives MGNREGA which are being systematically undermined," she
added.
Stating that the economy was on a downslide while prices
"continue on their unrelenting rise," Sonia Gandhi said the government
had little to show on its promises for creation of jobs and slogans such
as "Make in India".
She also accused the central government of systematically eroding the autonomy and integrity of vital institutions.
"Writers
and progressive thinkers are being physically eliminated. The media is
being threatened with notices and other repressive measures," the
Congress president said.
"History is sought to be rewritten with
special targeting of Jawaharlal Nehru, the architect of modern India and
builder of democratic institutions. This should hardly come as a
surprise to us," she said.
Referring to last week's coordination
meet between the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party, she said: "The
country last week was given clear evidence of what has been obvious for a
long time" that the Modi government is controlled and directed by the
RSS, whose agenda is well known to all of us.
She said the security situation in the country's neighbourhood has also deteriorated considerably.
"Our
jawans and civilians are being increasingly targeted. Instead of a
coherent policy on Pakistan, this government can't seem to make up its
mind on what it should do. From aggressively mocking former prime
minister Manmohan Singh and his policy during the election campaign, the
prime minister has been reduced to unedifying flip-flops casting doubts
on what he really stands for," she said.
Sonia Gandhi said the
block committees and booth committees should be empowered and the
party's priority should be to strengthen its existing support base while
actively reaching out to new constituents.
"A transparent mechanism to recognise and reward hard working and performing workers should be institutionalised."
The
CWC, the party's highest decision-making body, discussed the present
political situation in the country and organisational issues.