M A I N   N E W S

NDA govt comprehensive failure, says Sonia
Prashant Sood
Tribune News Service

Congress President Sonia Gandhi with Chief Ministers before the meeting of the council of Congress Chief Ministers at Mount Abu on Friday. — PTI photo

Inaugurating the fourth meeting of Congress Chief Ministers here, Mrs Gandhi expressed concern over “progressive weakening of the Centre”. She said the country had seen through the hollow claims being made by the BJP-led coalition about its three years in office.

Mrs Gandhi asked the Chief Ministers to show how fundamentally different the Congress governments were from their political opponents in priorities, policies, programmes, projects and procedures.

“Elections at the national level are two years away. Meanwhile, we have to consolidate, retaining power in states where we are in office and ousting the BJP and its allies in states where we are in opposition”, she said.

Mrs Gandhi said the people of Jammu and Kashmir, where the Congress-PDP alliance had formed the government, were yearning for return of peace and harmony. “I believe that we have reached a decisive turning point in Jammu and Kashmir. We have a common minimum programme to guide the coalition there and we are determined to ensure that this agenda is implemented in letter and spirit”, Mrs Gandhi asserted.

She hoped that the people of Gujarat would come out decisively to reject the politics of hate, violence and communal polarisation. Mrs Gandhi said the Congress was fighting forces in Gujarat “who will stoop to any level in word and deed to spread poison, to inflame society”. She said the economic success of Gujarat could only be sustained if bigotry was defeated.

Referring to the “shameful” lynching of Dalits in Jhajjar district of Haryana recently, Mrs Gandhi said one of the main aims of the Chief Ministers’ meeting was effective implementation of programmes for weaker sections.

She asked the Chief Ministers to implement the 10-point action plan adopted at the recent ‘Mahila Shaktikaran Adhiveshan’ held in New Delhi.

Pointing to the Guwahati Resolve adopted at the last Congress Chief Ministers’ conference, Mrs Gandhi called upon them to be more self-critical and introspective about steps taken for implementation of the agreed agenda. The Congress President said Centre-State relations were being redefined. “India needs a strong Centre, strong states, strong panchayats and nagarpalikas, all supporting and deriving strength from each other”, she said.

Mrs Gandhi did not refer to the deaths caused by alleged food scarcity in Rajasthan, but said the state had been hit by drought for the fourth year in succession, which had increased the vulnerability of farmers and other affected sections. “Everything must be done to ensure that the situation does not get worse”, she emphasised. Mrs Gandhi praised the Amarinder Singh government for taking the lead in sending wheat and fodder to Rajasthan and said other Congress-ruled states should also come forward with help.

Congress chief ministers have suggested that the party should set up a committee to study the impact of WTO agreement on agriculture. The suggestion came following divergent views expressed by chief ministers during discussion on rural development, agriculture and decentralisation following presentation by Dr Y.K. Alagh.

Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh disagreed with the suggestion to do away with the minimum support price mechanism. He said crop diversification and decentralisation of procurement had to be a gradual process. There was no common ground on several issues concerning agriculture with Congress-ruled food-surplus states like Punjab facing problems very different from those faced by food-deficient states like Rajasthan.