Highlight govt failures: Sonia
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Dec 8 — The Congress today sought to reiterate its reluctance to dislodge the Vajpayee government at the Centre in the wake of its recent electoral victory in three states.

The party’s reassertion came first from the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, and later by the party’s chief spokesman, Mr Shivraj Patil.

Addressing a general body meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP), its Chairperson Mrs Gandhi, pointed out that while there has been speculation on what the electoral results would mean for the political situation at the national level, "We will continue to offer the government constructive cooperation on issues of vital interest to the nation."

The Congress stand has been consistent since the day Mrs Gandhi took charge of the party and the CPP with the rider that it was prepared to discharge constitutional obligations as and when the situation requires.

The Chairman of the AICC Media Department, Mr Shivraj Patil, also reiterating the party’s stand at the routine briefing said: "We do not want to destabilise the present government or the current Lok Sabha. However, if (going to mid-term poll) is forced on us, we will have no option’’ he said in reply to a question if the party will take charge to form an alternative government if the present one collapses.’’

The Congress President, in her address, reminded the party MPs to "forcefully highlight the failures of the government and oppose and criticise policies which are not in national interest’’.

Mrs Gandhi said the principal lesson for her from the recent election results was "how a national party which won office in March lost the confidence of the electorate in a matter of just few months’’.

She asked the MPs to draw a lesson from this as the party charts out its future course in the states where it won and others where it is due.

"This is, therefore, a time of continuing consolidation as well as introspection. Several assembly elections are due in the next 12 to 15 months and each of them is likely to be as much a challenge as the elections that have just gone by," she said.

The Congress chief also underlined the victory in Adampur assembly byelection and the turnaround in Agra (East), where the Congress candidate finished close behind the BJP, with the Samajwadi Party contestant even forfeiting his deposit.

Turning to the current political and economic situation, she said the deep divisions within the BJP itself made it impossible for the ruling coalition to deliver effective governance.

This in turn would compound the miseries of the people who continue to be affected by high prices, lack of law and order and deteriorating civic services.

"There is a growing evidence to suggest that the absence of governance, the confusion and lack of decisiveness of the past several months, has brought us close to an economic crisis like the one faced in 1991,’’ she said.

On the international front, Mrs Gandhi said the government must take Parliament and the people into full confidence as to what is being negotiated with the USA on the nuclear issue after six rounds of talks.

She asked Congress MPs to prepare and participate more effectively in debates, attend crucial sessions regularly and maintain vigil.