The Indian National Congress is on the verge of revival, said All India Congress Committee leader Jairam Ramesh. Ahead of party MP Rahul Gandhi’s 95-km Bharat Jodo Yatra in Andhra Pradesh, between October 14 and 21, the Congress leaders deliberated with party workers on the arrangements here on Tuesday.
Accepting that State bifurcation in 2014 was a scar on the people of Andhra Pradesh, AICC leaders Digvijaya Singh and Jairam Ramesh said addressing a press conference here on Tuesday. They said the Congress government had made a special category status arrangement for the residual State for five years and the Bharatiya Janata Party government failed to honour the provision in the A.P. Reorganisation Act.
It maybe noted that the Congress party faced people’s ire and was completely washed out in Andhra Pradesh post bifurcation.
Former Vice-President M.Venkaiah Naidu, then a BJP leader, had argued for 10 years special category status for Andhra Pradesh in the Parliament, but as a Telugu man with a lot of influence, he could not convince his own party to give that status to the State, Mr Ramesh pointed out.
Accusing the BJP of dividing the society on caste, creed, and religious lines through its “unregistered organisation” Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Mr. Singh pointed out that when someone from the RSS is arrested, the party disowns them by saying they do not have any membership. He also alleged the Narendra Modi government of creating a wide difference between the Haves and Have-nots and questioned why national public assets were being sold to private/corporate entities.
Polavaram Multi-purpose Project was made an integral part of the bifurcation Act and when completed, it will be to the credit of the Congress Party to achieve such a project, said Mr. Jairam Ramesh and appealed to the people in AP to hold local Bharat Jodo Yatras and join in the one coming from Karnataka.
The Yatra has completed 62 km in Tamil Nadu, 355 km in Kerala and 66 km in Karnataka so far in 26 days and after its journey in Andhra Pradesh from Aluru to Mantralayam it will enter Karnataka again and spend 21 days in that State, said Mr. Jairam. In 5 months and 15 days it will cover 3,570 km with 4 days in Andhra Pradesh and 13 days in Telagnana. Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Sake Saiajanath and working president N. Tulasi Reddy were also present.
EOM
