NEW DELHI, June 9: A conclave of Congress Chief Ministers today 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 Prime Minister 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 UPA 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.
Addressing a press conference along with the Chief Ministers, 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 Prime Minister of not talking to the Chief Ministers 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.
The meeting resolved to pass state-level legislation to give statutory status to the Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan and the Tribal Sub-Plan and demanded that the Centre do likewise.
“This would be the best tribute to the memory of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar on the occasion of his 125th birth anniversary”, the meeting said at a time when there has been a tussle between the party and the BJP to appropriate the legacy of the Dalit icon.
The resolution rejected the proposed amendments to the Land Acquisition bill of 2013 and the recommended dilutions to the Food Security Act 2013.
Rahul Gandhi told the party chief ministers that they should maintain a “minimum level of performance”.
“It should be felt that the nine Congress state Governments are the best performing governments in the country”.
Besides, he said, the Congress-ruled states must focus clearly on one or two programmes and showcase them as the best in the country.
The meeting also opposed in the strongest possible terms the Centre’s moves to dilute RTI, MGNREGA, the Forests Rights Act, 2006, labour laws and laws related to the protection of environment and forests.
It also condemned the “despicable” efforts being made by the ruling establishment to denigrate and destroy the multi-faceted legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru.
“This has already damaged our secular fabric. An atmosphere of fear and foreboding has been deliberately created,” she said in her inaugural address to a day-long conference of Congress chief ministers, the first after the party’s worst debacle in Lok Sabha polls last year.
“There is another aspect of both substance and style that I should mention and this relates to a dangerous duplicitous game that is being played out.
“In terms of substance, there are systematic attempts being made to dismantle the edifice of the welfare state built up over the decades by successive Congress Governments”, she said.
In her speech, Sonia attacked Modi over “unprecedented centralisation” of power and said both “the substance and style” of Government were a cause of “great concern”.
“Unprecedented centralisation of power and authority, the deliberate by-passing of Parliamentary procedures and practices, threats to civil society and warnings to the judiciary marked the Modi rule,” she said targeting the Prime Minister.
“The new Government took over at the Centre a little over a year ago. Both its substance and style are now all too evident. Both are cause of great concern. They raise many disturbing questions. They should make us pause, reflect and give an appropriate response,” she told the conclave.
Gandhi told the gathering about the Prime Minister’s “turnabouts” like on the 2013 land acquisition law and on the National Food Security Act, saying “he has to be strongly opposed.”
She said it is alarming that the coverage under the National Food Security Act is proposed to be reduced from 67% to 40% and the entire system of food procurement including MSP is “under assault”.
Gandhi expressed concern over budgetary allocations being slashed in key areas like education, health, drinking water and sanitation, rural roads and livelihood, women and child development and welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
“This is clearly part of a new philosophy which abdicates the essential role of the Central Government in social and human development and in strengthening local self-Government institutions in rural and urban India”, she said.
The Congress president asked the chief ministers to work with the Centre for serving the interest of their states, but also told them to engage in agitations when it works against public interest.
She also put the onus on the Centre for creating and maintaining an atmosphere conducive for cooperation and consensus.
“As Chief Ministers you must work with the Centre in the best interests of your state even as you express your views frankly. But at the same time we as Congressmen and women have to confront the Modi Government and engage in agitations against it when it works against public interest,” she said.
In the wake of complaints from Congress Chief Ministers from the north east that they were not invited to be part of the Prime Minister’s delegation in the visit to Bangladesh, the resolution called upon the Centre to work with the state Governments in the region on matters of internal security foreign policy and on tackling problems arising out of porous international borders. (PTI)
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