Setting the tone for the party's campaign for Bihar election and other bypolls, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday took on the Narendra Modi government on three "anti-agriculture black laws", atrocities on Dalits, and the "free-fall" in GDP and other economic indices.
Sonia's attack on the government came during a virtual meeting with AICC General Secretaries and state in-charges, the first such meeting she chaired after a reshuffle in her team. She reminded her party workers that the Indian democracy is going through the "most tumultuous times".
The meeting came ahead of the Bihar Assembly election and bypolls in states, including Madhya Pradesh. The party leaders said that they would be raising the "anti-farmer and anti-worker face" of the Narendra Modi government during the election campaign.
The party would also highlight the "anti-Dalit" policies of the BJP-led government at the Centre and states by raising the Hathras incident issue, in which a 19-year-old Dalit girl was gang-raped and murdered allegedly by four men.
In her address, she said that the Modi government has "attacked the very foundation of our resilient agrarian economy by bringing in three anti-agriculture black laws" and a conspiracy has been hatched to defeat the gains of ‘Green Revolution’.
Emphasising that the lives and livelihoods of crores of farm labourers, leasehold farmers, small and marginal farmers, labourers and small shopkeepers were under attack, she asked the party workers to join hands to "defeat this sinister conspiracy".
On the economy, she said that the country has never witnessed "such a free-fall" in GDP and other economic indices while small and medium businesses are shutting at "unprecedented pace".
Sonia further added that the BJP government has "simultaneously demolished" the economy built painstakingly by the "hard work of fellow Indians and the vision" of successive Congress Governments.
"So much so, the Government is now failing to honour even its Constitutional responsibilities. The share of GST compensation is being denied to the States. How will the State Governments help our people, if the government was to renege on its Constitutional obligations? This must be a first example of economic anarchy being spread by the Central Government," she added.
She was also critical of the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and accused the Modi government of remaining a "mute spectator" to the miseries of people due to the "biggest unplanned, unmanaged and cruel migration".
"The stark truth is that a Prime Minister, who promised to defeat Covid-19 within 21 days, has abdicated his and his government’s responsibility towards the citizens. There is neither a plan nor strategic thinking, solution or way ahead in the fight against Covid-19," she said.
The Congress chief also stated, "atrocities on Dalits have reached a new zenith. Instead of honouring the law and granting adequate protection to India’s daughters, BJP government’s are siding with the criminals. The voice of oppressed families is being suppressed by the agencies of the State. Is this the new ‘Raj Dharma’?"