The Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson launched an all-out attack on the BJP and the Modi government and alleged that the government was orchestrating violence against minorities to polarise society for narrow political gains.
This would be seen in Karnataka too, which goes to the polls in a few months, the former Congress president, who handed over the party's reins to her son after 19 years in December last year, told the CPP.
"We have elected a new Congress president and on your behalf and on my own, I wish him all the very best. He is now my boss too - let there be no doubt about that - and I know that all of you will work with him with the same dedication, loyalty and enthusiasm as you did with me.
"I am confident that we will work cohesively under his leadership to revive our party's fortunes. That process has begun," she said.
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This, she said, was evident in the prime minister's speech in the Lok Sabha yesterday.
As CPP chairperson, she said she would work with the Congress president and other colleagues "in discussions with like-minded, political parties to ensure that in the next election, the BJP is defeated and India is restored to a democratic, inclusive, secular, tolerant and economically progressive path".
Minorities, the Congress leader added, feel unsafe and are subjected to barbarous attacks, even as Dalits have come under renewed and widespread atrocities, as have women.
This was witnessed in both Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat and would no doubt be seen again in Karnataka, she said.
"Such polarisation is criminal in a democracy, yet those in power look the other way," she said.
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