The Congress on Thursday announced a nationwide crackdown against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP-led government over issues such as unemployment, inflation and repeated leaks of exam papers, a day after the BJP announced that PM Modi has become the country’s longest-serving elected prime minister, party leaders familiar with the matter said.
The decision was taken at a meeting of Pradesh Congress Committee presidents, AICC general secretaries and state in-charges chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Party leaders said the unrest was likely to begin by the end of June and continue for two to three months.
In the meeting, Rahul Gandhi asked the leaders to have “agitational energy”!
“Under the leadership of INC president Mallikarjun Kharge and LoP Rahul Gandhi, they attended the meeting with AICC general secretaries, officials and PCC presidents from all over India to discuss the current political situation. They attended the meeting,” Congress general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal said in a post on X after the meeting.
“We also discussed the state of our democracy, threats to our Constitution, and the need to continue our fight for social justice,” he added.
According to two leaders present at the meeting, Rahul Gandhi warned that an “economic tsunami” was heading toward India and blamed the Modi government’s policies for the impending crisis.
A senior Congress leader from south India said that Gandhi had said that the crisis would affect all sections and sectors of society. He also criticized the government’s foreign and trade policies, alleging that New Delhi had allowed itself to be dictated to by the US regarding oil imports from Russia and had harmed farmers’ interests in the proposed Indo-US trade pact.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stressed the need for a well-planned and focused campaign and urged party leaders to ensure effective monitoring and coordination at all organizational levels, leaders present at the meeting said.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Venugopal said the party also discussed rejecting Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination and would challenge the matter politically and legally.
“This is a clear case of stealing seats. They take MPs from other parties, make them resign and then turn them into BJP MPs. We will fight this legally and politically,” he said.
Venugopal also attacked the government over the economic situation, alleging that the rise in prices of petrol, diesel and LPG has put people in dire straits.
“Unemployment is at its peak. The MSME sector is completely destroyed. Young people are worried about their future. There are no job opportunities,” he said.
The proposed mobilization will be the first major move by Congress at the country level since its campaign earlier this year against the Centre’s alleged attempts to weaken the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
