A conclave of Congress chief ministers on Tuesday attacked the “attempts” by sections of the ruling establishment to disturb social peace and communal harmony after Sonia Gandhi accused the Modi government of engaging in a “dangerous duplicitous game” of polarisation.
A resolution adopted at a day-long meeting attended by the party brass including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and vice president Rahul Gandhi, resolved to “resist these attempts forcefully”.
The tone for the meeting in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi came under attack from chief ministers, especially those from the North-east over not getting appointment from him, was set by Gandhi who said he was allowing his colleagues to create an atmosphere of “fear and foreboding” by fomenting “communal polarisation”.
She also charged the government with making “systematic attempts” to dismantle edifice of the welfare state and asked partymen to “strongly oppose” its moves on the land bill and food security law.
“On the one hand, the PM wants to project himself as the great champion of good governance and Constitutional values while on the other he allows many of his colleagues to make vile statements and foment communal polarisation,” Gandhi said.
The resolution rejected “boastful claims, exaggerations and downright falsehoods” of the central government on its achievements of the past year and its systematic efforts to deny the United Progressive Alliance government credit for the progress made during its 10-year rule.
Speaking at the meeting, Manmohan Singh paid a left handed compliment to Modi saying he has been “a more adept salesman, event manager and communicator than me” and said the UPA’s accomplishments should not be forgotten.
On his part, Rahul Gandhi made a veiled attack on Modi saying “our opposition believes in centralising power and ensuring that one or two people run our country”.
The conference expressed grave concern over the Centre “abdicating” its primary responsibility in human and social development and the substantial cuts in the allocations for health, education, women and child development, drinking water and agriculture.
It demanded restoration of allocation to these programmes while the chief ministers asserted they will not cut back on these programmes.
The conference expressed grave concern over the Centre “abdicating” its primary responsibility in human and social development and the substantial cuts in the allocations for health, education, women and child development, drinking water and agriculture.
It demanded restoration of allocation to these programmes while the chief ministers asserted they will not cut back on these programmes.
Addressing a press conference along with the CMs, senior leader A K Antony said that everyone in the meeting felt that the last one year of the Modi government was a "disaster". This, he said, was because the economy was “in a shambles” and prices of essential commodities were “shooting up”. The party chief ministers in the north-east spoke of “total neglect” of the region.
The resolution reiterated its opposition to the "hasty and ill-considered" abolition of the Planning Commission and to the manner in which the distinction between Special Category and non-Special Category states was done away with.
The meeting said the move has adversely affected the eight north-eastern states, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarkhand and Jammu and Kashmir as also the residual Andhra Pradesh.
While Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabom Tuki accused the PM of not talking to the CMs of the northeast, his Assam countepart Tarun Gogoi said that Modi was “not for cooperative federalism, but for concentration of power”.
Gogoi dubbed the NITI Aaayog as a "toothless body" and a "directionless" organisation at a time when the issue of regional imbalance is getting acute.
“This has been affecting the northeastern states the most as they are "geographically disadvantaged children of Mother India,” he said.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharamaiah and his Uttarakhand counterpart Harish Rawat disputed centre's claims that the states were getting much more funds than during the UPA dispensation.
Image: Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi and former PM Manmohan Singh at the Congress conference of chief ministers. Photograph: @INC_India/Twitter
