Sonia: ‘Reverse countdown’ has begun for Modi govt

New Delhi: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi lashed out at the Narendra Modi government at Sunday’s extended CWC meeting, cautioning people about the “reign of despair and fear” heaped upon India’s deprived and poor. She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rhetoric showed his “desperation” and signalled that the “reverse countdown” of the Modi government had begun. On the forging of alliances, Mrs Gandhi said: “We are committed to make alliances work and we are all with Congress president Rahul Gandhi in this endeavour.”

Attacking the government, Mrs Gandhi said that it was incumbent on the Congress to save the people from a “dangerous regime”. She said: “We have to rescue our people from a dangerous regime that is compromising with the democracy of India.”

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hit out at the culture of constant self-praise and “jumlas” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Dr Singh said Mr Modi’s claim that he would double farmers’ incomes by 2022 would require the agriculture sector to grow at a rate of 14 per cent, which he said was nowhere in sight. He added that to match the growth rate of the 10 years of UPA rule, the present government in its fifth year would have to achieve a growth rate of over 10 per cent even by the new calculating method. He added: “We will support Rahul Gandhi in his ‘onerous’ task of restoring India’s social harmony and economic development.” Taking on Mr Modi, the former PM said the constant self-praise was no alternative to a solid policy framework for driving the engine of growth.

This was the first meeting of the CWC after Mr Rahul Gandhi’s elevation as party president in December 2017. Earlier this week, the Congress president reconstituted the CWC with 51 members, accommodating a judicious mix of the young and the old.