Equating communalism with terrorism, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Saturday called upon the people to "resolutely fight against both" and teach a lesson to the BJP for its proposal to take out 'yatras' which was nothing but a "vulgar and crude" attempt to communalise even terror attacks on places of worship like Varanasi.
At a two-hour meeting, chaired by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and attended, among others, by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the CWC focussed its discussion mainly on the twin blasts in Varanasi and Naxalite incidents in Chhattisgarh, AICC General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters.
"The current political situation" also figured at the meeting, he said, but would not disclose whether the party's strategy for the assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry were discussed.
Party sources, however, said Ms Gandhi asked CWC members to prepare the organisation and its grass-root workers to effectively put across to the people in the poll-bound states the various steps taken by the UPA government for the welfare of the "Aam Admi," like the rural employment guarantee scheme.
The meeting, held at the official residence of Ms Gandhi at 10 Janpath, also discussed the Indo-US nuclear deal and appreciated Dr Singh and his cabinet colleagues for negotiating the agreement without compromising national sovereignty.
{{/usCountry}}The meeting, held at the official residence of Ms Gandhi at 10 Janpath, also discussed the Indo-US nuclear deal and appreciated Dr Singh and his cabinet colleagues for negotiating the agreement without compromising national sovereignty.
{{/usCountry}}Pointing out that the Congress and Ms Gandhi had always extended their cooperation to the NDA, when it was in power, to "defuse tension" after every terrorist attack -- be it on Parliament, Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, Raghunath temple or Akshardham temple.
"Neither the Congress Party nor any other party of UPA tried to take any political mileage out of these incidents," the CWC said.
"However, the BJP has a different standard of public behaviour even in the moment of difficult situations," the Congress regretted, depricating the move by Opposition Leader LK Advani and BJP President Rajnath Singh to take out 'yatras'.
The CWC appealed to all progressive, secular nationalist forces in the country to rise against this "crude and vulgar" attempt of "communalising the terrorist attacks."
It expressed confidence that the nation as whole would resolutely fight against both terrorism and communalism and would not support any diversionary tactics in this regard.