The Congress party today gave its full political backing to the Manmohan Singh government’s reform agenda, putting to rest speculation that there were sections within the party that were opposed to decisions like FDI in multi-brand retail.
The Congress working committee (CWC), the highest decision making body of the Congress, which took place in the backdrop of the pullout of the Trinamool Congress from the UPA, not just endorsed the reform agenda but Congress President Sonia Gandhi sent out a strong message that “there is no threat to the government, it is stable.”
The Congress President who chaired the meeting, stated in unambiguous terms how “necessary” the economic reforms were for the country at this critical juncture and slammed the BJP for playing "negative politics" instead of acting as a responsible opposition as was done by Congress when it was not in power.
Gandhi also mentioned that it was “unfortunate” the pullout of an ally (the Trinamool Congress) but assured the members that the government was stable and “two allies” the Samajwadi Party and the BSP continued to back the UPA from outside.
The main agenda being to discuss the economic reforms; again it was the Finance minister P Chidambaram who put forward the compelling arguments before the CWC members that led the government to undertake steps like hike in diesel prices, reining in subsidies on domestic LPG usage and unveiling FDI in multi-brand retail.
It was a rare concerted effort to have the party and the government on the same page. The consistent grouse among partymen and even Congress spokespersons has always been that the government works in isolation, takes decisions for which the party has to bear the brunt and do the firefighting.
A senior CWC member speaking to Business Standard said, “Whatever was said by P Chidambaram today on the depreciation of the Rupee against the US Dollar which has led to further escalation in the under-recoveries of the public sector Oil Marketing Companies, as well the steps that had to be taken to arrest the fall of the rupee- were points that had been stated before by the Prime Minister in his national address. But it was vital that the party’s decision making body be officially be apprised of it so that a message is sent out.”
At the same time today, with the key office bearers of the party including Congress scion Rahul Gandhi being present at the CWC, it was an apt opportunity to urge Congressmen to spread the government’s point of view among the people - to manage the political fallout of these reforms.
Another CWC member informed that, “The GoM media members which includes top Cabinet ministers will again be fanning out across the country to remove misconceptions among the masses.” “Opposition to FDI is not among farmers but by the political class. It is they who want to gain political benefit out of opposing this,” said a Cabinet minister later.
Significantly, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, though not a CWC member, was specially invited to the meeting. Sources said this was in preparation for a massive rally by the Congress to be held in Delhi in support of the measures initiated by the government, to counter the false messages that are being unleashed by the Opposition on how these measures- were anti-people etc.
The Prime Minister who spoke towards the end, bolstered the arguments put forward by Chidamabaram and then told the CWC that UPA flagship programmes both existing and the ones that it is keen to introduce cannot be implemented effectively till economy is in a sound position. He clinched the argument by stating that in order to fund schemes like Food bill, NREGA and the like, it was imperative to rejig the economy.