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| Sonia exhortation heartens Congress members |
| BS Reporter / New Delhi Dec 22, 2011, 02:04 IST |
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Says no party-govt coordination issue, good chances in upcoming polls.
A feisty speech by party president Sonia Gandhi at the Congress Parliamentary party meeting, followed by dinner for Members of Parliament, put some of the spunk — lost by the beating the party has got in recent months — back into members.
Gandhi countered what had only been rumours till now, of differences between the party and the government. She said there was nothing to be ashamed or apologetic about. The government and the party had achieved a great deal. The Food Security Bill was being introduced in this session. “We must make it work because it will protect a huge number of our people from hunger and malnutrition,” she said, noting it was another in the series of rights-based legislation in line with the Right to Information Act, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Right to Education Act.
The Congress had also done extensive work on countering corruption, she said. Three Bills with major implications would be passed soon — on protection of whistleblowers, enhancing judicial accountability, and controlling bribery of Indian public officials by foreign companies. Laws on prevention of money laundering were being strengthened. The Citizens’ Right to Grievance Redressal Bill would deal with issues of accountability and graft down to the block level. And, the Lok Pal Bill was coming, too.
Gandhi said there was motivated Opposition chatter that the party and the government were not on the same page. Nothing could be further from the truth, she emphaised. There were differences, she did say, but in the end, both were working towards the same end.
However, many MPs seemed to suggest more differences between the party and the government than merely creative dissonance. They said the issue of foreign direct investment in the retail sector was an example. On handling the Lok Pal agitation, a minister from Kerala said the government should have dealt with the issue more sternly. Others said the party should have spoken up on the BJP’s charge of corruption against some UPA ministers.
About the elections in five states due next year, Gandhi said there was a “definite sentiment in our favour’ in Uttarakhand and Punjab. “I am confident we will return to power (there),” she said, but conceded the party faced ‘odds’ in Uttar Pradesh, where there is also, she felt, “growing support for us... The challenge is to convert that support into votes on polling days.” She asked those representing UP to “work hard”.
“'In Manipur and Goa, where we are in power, our achievements these past years give us the confidence of securing a renewed mandate,” she told MPs. She said two packages of close to Rs 6,000 crore for the welfare of handloom weavers in different states and a decision to procure business worth at least Rs 7,000 crore would stand the underprivileged in good stead.
Of all her lieutenants, it was Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s work she chose to endorse in her speech, and noted the decline in growth of food inflation. Controlling inflation will remain our overriding priority, she said.
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