New Delhi: Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi chaired a meeting of the Congress parliamentary party on Tuesday and discussed the party's future stating the road ahead for the party is more challenging than ever.
Calling for unity at all levels of organisation, Gandhi said that she is determined to do whatever was needed to improve the situation of the party. She said, "our spirit of resilience is under severe test. Unity at all levels of organisation is of paramount importance, I am determined to do whatever is needed to ensure it."
Gandhi further said that the revival of Congress is just a matter of importance to the party but is essential for the country's democracy and society as well.
Addressing the CPP meet, she also hit out at the BJP, saying the ruling party's "divisive agenda" has become a regular feature of political discourse in all states and that history is being "mischievously distorted" to add fuel to its agenda.
"The divisive and polarising agenda of the ruling party and its leaders has now become a regular feature of the political discourse in state after state. History, not just ancient but also contemporary, is mischievously distorted and facts are maliciously invented to add fuel to this agenda.It is for us all to stand up and confront these forces of hate and prejudice," said Sonia Gandhi according to a report by PTI.
"We will not allow them to damage the bonds of amity and harmony that have sustained and enriched our diverse society for centuries," she told party MPs of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Accusing the ruling establishment of targeting the opposition, its leaders, and workers, she said the full might of the state machinery is unleashed against them.
"Maximum governance to those in power clearly means spreading maximum fear and intimidation," she charged and added such blatant threats and tactics will neither frighten nor silence us nor will we get cowed down.
This was the first Congress Parliamentary Party meeting after the party's debacle in the recent assembly elections in five states. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, besides all party MPs in both houses of Parliament, attended the meeting.
Congress has been seeking to corner the government in the second leg of the ongoing Budget Session on the issue of inflation and the rise in prices of petrol, diesel, and LPG gas.