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Restructure and rebuild, Congress tells Sonia

George Iype in New Delhi

The Congress party's political resolution adopted at the special session of the All India Congress Committee on Monday has predicted that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government will collapse thanks to the political duplicity of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

But the AICC resolution admits that "a crisis of confidence that engulfed the Congress on the eve of the general election" was the main reason for its bad performance at the hustings.

The special AICC session that ratified Sonia Gandhi's election as Congress president has, therefore, asked her to restructure, rebuild and lead the party in order to check the communal forces as represented by the BJP.

The political resolution, moved by senior Congress leader and Sonia's close aide Arjun Singh, lashes out at the Vajpayee government and its national agenda which, the Congress believes, is "an agenda to secure the support of disparate and dissimilar parties to get into the government".

'The BJP is not the master of its own house, and ultimately it is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, "a fascist organisation which runs the show in the Vajpayee government", says the Congress resolution.

It says this "political duplicity" of the BJP, at some point of time, will reach a flashpoint. "The Congress party will have to play a decisive role at that juncture," the resolution foresees.

According to the AICC, the Vajpayee government's national agenda is the final manifestation of a series of political somersaults that the BJP indulged in, in the last one year.

The first scene was enacted when the BJP threw all norms of political behaviour and conduct to the winds and formed the government in Uttar Pradesh. The second scene was unveiled when the BJP made a desperate attempt to form the government at the Centre by seeking defections from all parties, including the Congress, on the eve of the dissolution of the 11th Lok Sabha.

But the results of the 12th Lok Sabha election came as a rude shock to the BJP when it realised that it could not form the government on its own, along with the support of its existing allies.

"Thus the national agenda came about as an expedient mechanism to once again bluff the secular forces to somehow ensure a majority in the Lok Sabha," states the resolution.

But it said the Congress is consciously maintaining a constant vigil to ensure that the BJP government does not tamper with the basic secular, democratic and egalitarian fabric of the nation.

Analysing the party's electoral setbacks, the Congress resolution says lack of the involvement of grassroot Congress workers in the organisational electoral process demoralised the party's rank and file.

"This is not a time to merely point fingers or pass the buck. This is a time for self-introspection and admission of stark realities that stare us in the face," it says.

The resolution says the erosion in the traditional support base of the party in some crucial states and the failure to arrive at certain alliances before the election led to the drifting away of many workers and leaders from the party.

"But now there is no scope for any complacency or procrastination," it says, adding that the induction of youth, women, representatives of minorities, Dalits and the disadvantaged people at various levels at the party organisation was an imperative.

The AICC said the Congress always stands for probity and integrity in public life and recognises that the viability of our democratic system depends, to a large extent, on the effective steps that need to be taken to keep corrupt and criminal elements at bay.

Therefore, the AICC resolution has asked the party president to immediately constitute an ethics committee to look into any complaints of undesirable behaviour within the party from any Congress worker.

The special AICC session also pledged that the Congress will continue to play its historic role in the country's development and will preserve and promote the values and ideals which guided the nation in the 50 years since Independence.

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