Sonia takes swipe at AAP governance

Calls poll a clash of Cong, BJP ideologies

In her first election rally in the national capital, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday reminded people of the 49-day Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government with a jibe: “Some people think governance is child’s play.”

“You saw in Delhi how such people ran away from the field. I have full faith in you that you will not make any mistake in taking the decision this time. It is not a new experience for the Congress to form government and successfully run it,” she said.

Incidentally, the Congress organised the event at Karol Bagh’s Ajmal Khan Park after a gap of 35 years. Many partymen believed that the venue was lucky for the party as former prime minister Indira Gandhi made a comeback to power after addressing her first rally here in 1979.

Sonia called the coming Lok Sabha polls a fight between bigotry and secularism, even as her party began sending out feelers to other non-communal forces for working together to keep the BJP out of power. 

“This election is a fight between two ideologies. There is a party which teaches bigotry to divide the people of the country, and there is the Congress, which wants to take everyone along,” she said, in a jibe directed at the saffron party. She also made a veiled attack on the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. 

“Some people are beating the drum of patriotism. Tell me, if they don't believe in the country's pluralism and secular values, how can they grasp the spirit of patriotism? No, they can't. They want to grab power for themselves and their people by misleading you,” she alleged.

Patriotism flows in the veins of the Congress, and one can learn it from the “sacrifices” made by its leaders, she said.

Gandhi’s comments come on a day when Defence Minister and party veteran A K Antony said in Kasargod that the Congress would accept cooperation from all secular parties to keep communal forces at bay from coming to power at the Centre.