Congress nation-wide protest from November 5

New Delhi: Buoyed by its performance in the recent Assembly polls that was well beyond its expectations, the Congress has called a meeting of all Opposition parties on November 4 to finalise a nationwide campaign on the state of the economy. Senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad is coordinating with all other Opposition parties, sources told this newspaper.

The Congress, which has already announced plans for a nationwide protest from November 5 to 15 on four key issues — the economic downturn, unemployment, the agrarian distress and the proposed signing of the RCEP by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — would first hold a meeting of its top office-bearers, including all AICC general secretaries, on Saturday, This meeting will be chaired by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said that the party will also organise press conferences across the country from November 1 to 8.

The protests starting November 5 will culminate in a “massive programme” in New Delhi in the last week of November when Parliament will be in session. At the state level, the PCC presidents, CLP leaders and senior AICC figures will provide the leadership, while central leaders will participate in the protest in Delhi, he said.

The statement further said the protests against the BJP government’s “misrule” will be carried out in all state capitals and district headquarters. The Congress has already decided to depute 31 senior party leaders as observers to various states/UTs to monitor this country-wide agitation programme.

Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the party would highlight the issues of the adverse impact of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the current economic crisis, mounting unemployment, spiralling prices, the collapse of the banking system, heavy loss of jobs in the public and private sectors and the omnipresent farm distress.

Apart from this, senior Congress leaders would also hold press conferences in major towns and cities. Among the issues they will highlight are the collapse of the banking system and RCEP, which the Prime Minister is likely to sign on November 4. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a proposed free trade agreement between the 10 members of Asean, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Besides the 10 Asean members (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Laos and Vietnam), it will include their six FTA partners — India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.