Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: August 2, 2006
Sonia hard on terror, soft on terror preachers
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday
sent confusing signals about the UPA Government's response to terrorism in
the wake of the Mumbai blasts by lacing her call for "tough measures"
with considerations of vote bank politics.
In a clear reference to complaints that the
Muslim community was being targeted in the wake of the serial bomb blasts
in Mumbai, she told a Congress Parliamentary Party meeting, "we must
take all steps to ensure that no community feels itself under siege or as
automatic target of suspicion."
The Congress president's concern to dispel
the impression that the Muslim community was being targeted in the post-blasts
police operations however strikes a discordant note with Home Minister Shivraj
Patil's statement on the issue, a day before.
Responding to similar complaints from some
MPs in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, Patil had made it clear that the police
could not be reined in to go soft on any suspect simply because he belonged
to a particular community.
Sonia's address to the first CPP meeting of
the Monsoon session reflected the ambivalence of the party in dealing with
embarrassing issues like internal security, farmers' suicides, price rise
and OBC quota in higher education.
She also expressed concern over the price
situation but sought to blame the previous NDA Government for some of the
"insensitive" decisions it had taken in this regard.
"Prices of essential commodities have
been a matter of concern," Gandhi said, almost paraphrasing what she
had said at the last CPP meeting held in May.
But she appeared eager to ensure that her
remarks this time did not put the Prime Minister or the Finance Minister in
the dock as had happened last time when the UPA Government was attacked by
senior Congress leaders for its failure to check prices of essential commodities.
At Tuesday's CPP meeting, she went out of
the way to exonerate the UPA Government on the price rise issue. "We
are still dealing with the consequences of the most insensitive decision of
the NDA Government to export 14 million tonnes of wheat during its tenure,"
she stated.
Noting that the States should be empowered
to take tough and pre-emptive action against hoarders, she said what was generally
not known was that the NDA Government "withdrew the powers in February,
2002".
The Congress president was equally keen to
bail out the Congress-led UPA Government on the farmers' suicide issue. "At
our next formal meeting of Congress Chief Ministers later this month, we will
focus on agriculture," she told party MPs.
She prefaced her statement by recalling the
recent visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Vidarbha where there have
been cases of suicide by farmers and noted that the PM had announced a series
of measures to alleviate rural distress, expand the coverage of institutional
credit and also provide livelihood security in vulnerable regions.
In her speech, Gandhi also dwelt on some other
issues, including the deteriorating situation in West Asia and the tragedy
of Lebanon. Condemning the Israeli attack, she said, "nothing can justify
this reprehensible violence against a defenceless people."
Gandhi suggested there would not be a valedictory
general body meeting of the CPP, "this being relatively a brief session".
