Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and others observe a moment of silence during a Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, in New Delhi.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: Documenting grievances after listening to the common man’s problems and prompting families to take symbolic pledges to protect the Constitution are among a slew of activities Congress workers have been instructed to undertake during their ten-day house-to-house ‘Samvidhan Bachao Abhiyan’ next month.
The campaign between May 20-30 is part of a 40-day programme designed by the Congress leadership starting April 27 spanning state, district, and Assembly constituency levels aimed at connecting with people again, after a similar campaign on party’s guarantees ahead of Lok Sabha elections last year.
While the state-level campaign will be held between April 27 and 30, district level conferences are being organised between May 3 and 10 and constituency level meetings between May 11 and 17. Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal has sent a three-page circular to state units on campaign themes and other details, sources said. The campaign was to start on Thursday but now has been rescheduled owing to the Pahalgam terror strike.
The campaign comes as it plans to popularise its ‘Nyay Path’ resolution adopted in Ahmedabad to highlight its fight for social, economic and political justice. It will also raise the “witch-hunt against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and the family of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in fabricated cases”.
As part of the plan, booth-level teams will undertake the door-to-door campaign where party workers will “directly speak” with families, “listening” to their concerns regarding issues like price rise, unemployment, and denial of basic rights. They should seek support of families through a “symbolic pledge to protect the Constitution”.
The workers are also instructed to “document the grievances wherever possible” and efforts should be made to capture these interactions through photographs and short videos for “amplification on social media”. Special attention should be given to reaching out to women, elderly, daily wagers and marginalised sections to make it “truly inclusive and grassroots-oriented”.
The party plans to set the narrative in a phased manner as it wants the rallies and meetings at state, district and Assembly level to raise specific issues.
Sources said rallies and meetings at “state capitals or other strategic locations” should highlight Modi government’s “continuous subversion” of Constitutional institutions, fabricated cases against party leadership, attack on federalism and the undermining of Parliamentary proceedings. Simplified versions of the Preamble and key rights should be distributed to attendees.
At district level, the themes will revolve around “exposing” the Modi government on unemployment, inflation, collapse of MSME, rural distress and systematic weakening of welfare policies. “Local narratives and real-life testimonials of citizens” would be highlighted during these meetings, sources said.
The Assembly constituency meetings should be “more localised” and led by MLAs, candidates, block presidents and booth-level leaders with a focus on “ideological betrayal of the Constitutional promise of social justice and equality”, collapse of local governance, increasing use of central agencies and marginalisation of Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, minorities and women.
According to the circular, the campaign marks a “powerful, mass-based political resistance against the ruling regime’s reckless dismantling of Constitutional values, its brazen weaponisation f central agencies for political vendetta, its repeated violations of federal principles and its shameful neglect of soaring inflation, rampant unemployment and widening inequality”.
“In a brazen affront to the Constitution, even the judiciary is now being subjected to veiled threats and coercive tactics – an unmistakable sign of authoritarian overreach,” it added.