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Congress once derived max strength from Gujarat, have come here for inspiration: Kharge
Mallikarjun Kharge said Gujarat had always been the top state from which the Congress derived its greatest strength over the last 140 years
AHMEDABAD: In an effort to reconnect the Congress with the BJP bastion Gujarat, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday hailed the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) narrative that there was of friction between Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru, and declared that the party was back in Gujarat “to take inspiration and strength”.
In his inaugural speech at the Congress Working Committee meeting in Ahmedabad’s ‘Sardar Patel Museum on Tuesday morning, Kharge sought to reach out to the people of Gujarat who last voted the Congress to power in the 1990 elections. The CWC meeting sets the stage for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) session on Wednesday, being held in the state after a gap of over six decades.
Kharge said Gujarat had always been the top state from which the Congress derived its greatest strength over the last 140 years. “Today we have come here again to take inspiration and strength. Our real strength is the unity and integrity of our country and the ideology of social justice. But today to take that ideology forward it is necessary that we first strengthen ourselves. Strengthen our organisation,” he said.
Hitting out at the BJP and its ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, Kharge said there was an effort to create an atmosphere against the Congress by “people who have nothing to show as their achievements” and “have nothing to show as their contribution in the freedom struggle.”
“They conspire to show the relationship between Sardar Patel and Pandit Nehru as if both the heroes were against each other. Whereas the truth is that they were two sides of the same coin. Many events and documents are witness to their cordial relationship,” he added, underlining that the CWC was being held at Ahmedabad’s ‘Sardar Patel Museum’ to underline the point that the “we are taking his legacy forward”.
The AICC is set to pass a special resolution on Sardar Patel to mark his 150th birth anniversary and 75th death anniversary.
Kharge also criticised the BJP and the Sangh Parivar, saying they were taking over the institutions associated with Mahatma Gandhi such as the Sarva Seva Sangh and Gujarat Vidyapeeth and handing it over to Mahatma’s ideological opponents. “People with such thinking can steal Gandhiji’s glasses and stick. But they can never follow his ideals. Gandhiji’s ideological legacy is the real capital which only the Congress party has.”
Patel and his close ties with Nehru was a recurring theme in Kharge’s speech, an effort to counter the BJP’s narrative that the two had major differences and that Nehru didn’t allow Patel to become the first prime minister.
He also quoted Nehru and Patel to stress how the two leaders respected each other and how Nehru would go to Patel’s house if he needed to seek his advice and hold CWC meetings at Patel’s residence for his convenience.
Kharge said Patel’s ideology was contrary to the ideas of RSS and said, “It is laughable that today the people of that organisation claim Sardar Patel’s legacy.”
The Congress president said “a well-planned conspiracy” was being carried out regarding many national heroes for the last several years and alleged that “attention is being diverted from the basic issues of the country by doing communal division”. “On the other hand, oligarchic monopoly is on the path of controlling the government by capturing the resources of the country,” he said
Kharge also attacked the BJP for the shifting of Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar from prominent locations in the Parliament complex.
“The Modi government insulted Gandhiji and Baba Saheb by lifting their grand statues in the Parliament premises and putting them in a corner. The home minister mocked Baba Saheb in Rajya Sabha by saying that you people keep saying Ambedkar, Ambedkar, Ambedkar, if you had taken the name of God so much, you would have secured a place in heaven for seven lifetimes.”
Kharge, who was elected to the party’s top post in 2022, said the AICC session will see discussions on the challenges facing the Congress and urged leaders to give “original suggestions” to strengthen the party.
