The Congress on Wednesday decided to launch countrywide campaigns to take the paper leak and ‘chanda chori’ issues to the grassroots level and resolved that only first two stanzas of Vande Mataram will be sung at all party events in future.
The decisions were taken at a four-hour-long meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party’s highest decision-making body, where the leadership urged its four chief ministers to prepare a report on reforms required in the education and examination system in their respective states.
The chief ministers have been asked to submit the same to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge within a month.
The CWC passed a resolution at its meeting in which issues of paper leak, ‘chanda chori’ at Ram temple and a Supreme Court-monitored probe into it, ‘failure’ of foreign policy and Chinese ‘incursions’ in Arunachal Pradesh, freezing Lok Sabha seats at 543 for the next 25 years and implementing 33 per cent women reservation on its present strength, besides concerns over E20 implementation were raised.
Besides the Congress president, senior party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and several top leaders and special invitees besides all four chief minister of Congress-ruled states attended the marathon meeting held in the aftermath of the students agitation on paper leaks and the Ram temple donations row.
The party also termed the just-concluded Parliament session as a “success” for the opposition, as they jointly raised the issues vociferously that caused frequent disruptions.
Reiterating that the party stood with the youth and issues concerning them, the Congress announced that its ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ programme, to address students and raise their issues, will be held in nearly 800 cities across the country, and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will participate in some of them.
The programme has already been held in Kota, Dehradun and Prayagraj and will be held in Pune on Saturday, which will be addressed by Gandhi.
The opposition party also alleged that the government was following a “surrender policy” with “Chinese incursions” taking place in Arunachal Pradesh.
“The Congress Party demands an independent investigation into the matter under the supervision of the Supreme Court, along with a comprehensive audit of all the Trust’s accounts and assets ‘ including cash and valuables,” the CWC resolution said.
“The CWC is deeply distressed by the plight of our youth…The CWC strongly condemns the arbitrary and brutal repression unleashed by the Modi government against student movements ‘ including attacks on young women and children, the use of electric shock batons, tear gas, pellet guns and AK-47s, and the blatant censorship of voices of dissent.
“The refusal of the Prime Minister and Home Minister to face Parliament and answer for these serious failures demonstrates not only their cowardice in India’s democratic history, but also their complete indifference and disregard for the future of the country,” it also said.South Asians & Diaspora
In his opening remarks, Kharge accused the Modi government of “destroying” the future of students and asserted that the time has come for the Congress to formulate a comprehensive ‘Education-to-Employment Roadmap’ for the youth.
