New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday slammed the Modi government, saying there is a brazen campaign to straitjacket the whole country into a regressive and narrow-minded world view.
Speaking at a meeting of the Congress Working Committee, the party's highest decision-making body, Gandhi also asserted that the Congress must be ready to protect the essence and idea of India "which this government is seeking to extinguish".
On the ongoing unrest in Kashmir, the Congress president said the people of Jammu and Kashmir were being "systematically" alienated and antagonised.
Gandhi`s remarks that the government`s "divisive agenda" had "undone years of goodwill and progress" in the state follow spike in militant violence and daily stone-pelting protests in the Kashmir Valley.
"The crisis in Jammu and Kashmir has come to represent the colossal failure of this government. We are facing a rise in cross-border terrorism," she said, addressing the Congress Working Committee meeting here.
The Congress president accused the state and central governments of "insensitive handling" of the situation in Kashmir which was "systematically alienating and antagonising the local population, especially the youths".
"A large number of jawans (soldiers and troopers) and civilians have lost their lives or have been injured, young people have even been blinded."
Gandhi said it was imperative for the government to address the crisis and that it "corrects its flawed approach, works in earnest to rebuild and restore normalcy to regain the trust of the people".
She said a small team of Congress leaders led by former prime minister Manmohan Singh has been formed to keep abreast of the situation in Kashmir.
With Presidential Elections round the corner, Sonia Gandhi said it was essential that the person to be elected to the high office should protect the Constitution.
"In a few weeks we will be electing the President and Vice President of our republic. In times such as these, it is even more essential that those who occupy this august office protect the Constitution," she said.
Gandhi said that Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, other colleagues and she have met the leaders of like-minded parties to find commonly acceptable candidates for these high offices.
A subgroup of representatives has been constituted to take this forward, she said.
Referring to the next Lok Sabha election, Gandhi said, "We are not far from the 2019 elections. We must be ready to protect the essence and idea of India, which this government is seeking to extinguish."
She said the recently held Assembly Elections hold vital lessons for the party both in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
"With an energized cadre and effective leadership we were able to defeat a sitting NDA government in Punjab, but in Manipur and Goa we failed to convert our winning numbers into forming a government. This outcome reminds us that the BJP will use their enormous resources and muscle power to steal mandates from us, just as they did in Arunachal Pradesh and earlier in Uttarakhand. We cannot let this happen again," she said.
Towards this end, Gandhi said the party organisation must be strengthened.
"The ongoing organisational elections must be completed with the utmost speed and sincerity. The schedule for organisational elections has been determined and will come up before the CWC for approval," she said.
The meeting, which was attended by party vice president Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, discussed the current political situation and the upcoming Presidential Election.
Top Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, P Chidambaram, Ambika Soni, Janardan Dwiwedi and other CWC members were also present at the meeting.
(With Agency inputs)
