Noting that there is a growing feeling amongst the people that the Narendra Modi government has gravely mishandled the crisis at the Line of Actual Control (LAC), Congress president Sonia Gandhi today said that while the future is yet to unfold, she hoped that mature diplomacy and decisive leadership will guide the Centre's actions in protecting the country's territorial integrity.
“We urge upon the government that peace, calm and the restoration of the status quo ante along the LAC be the only guiding principles in our national interest,” Gandhi said in her opening remarks at the meeting of the Congress Working Committee.
Gandhi said that while the undeniable fact is that since April-May, Chinese troops have committed brazen transgressions into Indian territory in Pangong Tso Lake area and the Galwan Valley, Ladakh, “True to its character, the government is in denial”.
“The intrusion was detected and reported on May five, 2020. Instead of a resolution, the situation deteriorated rapidly and there were violent clashes on June 15-16,” said the Congress president, remarking that the prime minister was called out when he announced that “no one had intruded into Indian territory in Ladakh”.
As the BJP accuses the Congress of politicising the LAC issue, Gandhi said, “On matters of national security and territorial integrity, the nation has always stood together and this time too, there is no second opinion. The Congress party was the first to offer its total support to the Armed Forces and the government.”
At the virtual meeting, Gandhi also highlighted the issues pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic and the economy, saying “Misfortunes do not come singly.” She, however, held the Modi government's alleged mismanagement responsible for the crises.
“India has been hit by a terrible economic crisis, a pandemic of huge proportions and, now, by a full-blown crisis on the borders with China. Much of each crisis is attributable to the mismanagement of the BJP-led NDA government and the wrong policies pursued by it,” she said.
The cumulative effect, she said, is widespread misery, fear, and danger to the security and territorial integrity of the country.
Remarking that the Modi government refuses to listen to good advice, she said that while the need of the hour is a massive fiscal stimulus, putting money directly in the hands of the poor, protecting and nurturing the MSMEs, and stimulating demand, the Centre announced a “hollow financial package” with a fiscal component of less than one per cent of the GDP.
She attacked the government over the increase in prices of petrol and diesel, saying it had added insult to injury by raising the petroleum rates for 17 consecutive days at a time when world prices of crude have fallen. “The result is that a sliding economy is now hurtling towards a recession for the first time in 42 years,” she said, adding that this would lead to high unemployment, falling incomes and wages, and lower investment. Recovery, she said, is likely to take a long time, and that too only if the government corrects its course and adopts sound economic policies.
Criticising the government's handling of the pandemic, Gandhi said that within weeks of the imposition of the lockdown, it was apparent that the government was totally unprepared to manage its fallout.
“The result was the greatest humanitarian crisis witnessed since 1947-48. Millions of migrant or guest workers, daily wage earners and self-employed were devastated. 130 million jobs are estimated to have been lost. Crores of MSMEs have been shut, perhaps forever,” she said.
Gandhi criticised the Prime Minister for allegedly centralising all authority in his hands, and said the “grave deficiencies” in the health infrastructure have been exposed.
“The promised ‘peak’ is nowhere in sight. The Centre has passed the buck to the state governments, but given them zero extra finances. Actually, the people have been left to protect themselves as best as possible,” she said, and noted that “The mismanagement of the pandemic will be recorded as one of the most disastrous failures of the Modi government.”
