Sonia at Samvad Baithak’ calls for balanced view between Party and govt

New Delhi: At the meeting – Samvad Baithak- of about 70 top Congress leaders, party President Sonia Gandhi outlined the Congress strategy for the next elections when the party will ask voters for a third consecutive term in power.

Mrs Gandhi, who surprised her party colleagues by boarding their bus along with her son Rahul to Surajkund on the outskirts of Delhi, stressed the need for a better and closer relationship between the party and the government that it leads. "Discussions do happen between the two, but only when really big decisions need to be taken," she said in her opening remarks.

"Sometimes the party is unhappy with decisions taken by the government. Both views have to be balanced," she stressed. Sonia Gandhi, who has been urging her party not to sound defensive while being torpedoed by corruption charges, said, "Our detractors want to grab power at any cost, notwithstanding that their greed would weaken democracy and secular values." Those in the government should strive hard to fulfill unfulfilled promises in the 2009 manifesto, she added..

The Congress leadership has shortlisted three key issues - the current political situation, economic challenges and its track record in fulfilling poll promises - as its agenda for the meet. Each of the 70 delegates (35 party leaders and 35 ministers) who are supposed to be present at the meeting - christened Samvad Baithak - has been given a copy of the 2009 Congress manifesto for easy reference. "You know coalition governments present some difficulty, but we have to review its implementation," said Janardhan Dwivedi, the Congress general secretary, who is in-charge of organising the session.

The meeting also discussed the current political situation and the economic challenges before the country, Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi had said recently. The meet is being described in Congress circles as a "review-cum-strategy" session.

This article is posted by pressbrief.in