Congress wants to get rid of EVMs
March 17, 2018
The Congress on Saturday, March 18, resolved to adopt a ‘pragmatic approach’ for cooperation with all like-minded parties and evolve a common workable programme to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the 2019 general election.
This indication of a pre-poll tie-up comes in the wake of efforts by the Congress to evolve a consensus among various Opposition parties to unitedly take on the BJP’s might.
In its political resolution moved at the session, the Congress launched a scathing attack on the BJP-RSS, saying the country’s core Constitutional values are under attack and freedom of all is in jeopardy, with institutions under stress and their independence compromised.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi, in his brief inaugural address at the 84th Congress plenary session, also accused the Narendra D Modi government of spreading hatred and anger, and said the Congress was the only party that would take the country forward by fostering an environment of amity and love.
Gandhi said the Congress’s hand (its election symbol) is the only one that would unite India and take it forward, and reminded partymen that it followed the ideology of love.
The difference between the BJP and the Congress was that while they spread anger and hatred, “we spread love and brotherhood”, he said.
The Congress party under him, rahul added, would take seniors and the youth together as the tradition of the Congress party was to embrace change without forgetting its past and legacy.
“If the youth have to take the Congress forward, it cannot be done without the experience of the party veterans. My task is to be take them together,” he said.
Taking a jibe at the present dispensation, Gandhi said that crores of youth in the country, looking up to Modi, are not finding any anything as there were no jobs.
“The country is tired of what is happening under the current government. Only the Congress party can show the way and heal divisions in the nation,” he said.
“Come what may, this country belongs to everyone, every religion, every caste and every person and the Congress party is for everyone and we will not leave anyone behind,” he added.
The draft resolution moved at the conclave by senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge says, ‘A resurgent Congress alone shall win back the idea of India as envisioned by the founding fathers of our nation.’
The party said it was prepared for making sacrifices required to defend the ethos of the Constitution and ‘We will purge the polity of the aberrations witnessed during the BJP regime, which has failed to honour its commitments to the people of India.’
The party also gave a clarion call to its rank and file to rise to the occasion and defend the foundational values of the Republic and Constitutional democracy.
The resolution said at a time when the country stood at the crossroads, facing the threat posed by ‘authoritarian, divisive and disruptive forces’, the Congress is committed to serve the people of India with its illustrious history and legacy that represent multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-religious India.
Under the BJP regime, the Congress said, the people of the country, be it farmers, labourers, unorganised sector workers, self-employed, Dalits, traders, minorities and the poor have been ‘betrayed’.(Agencies)
