In poll year, Congress to target Modi government over policy failures, social distress

All India Congress Committee has released logo of 'Haath se Haath Abhiyan', during which the party hopes to reach out reach every house in the 10 lakh polling booths of the 6 lakh villages and 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, armed with the chargesheet against the Modi-led union government.

New Delhi:The Congress on Saturday said it is going to directly target the Modi government over policy failures and corruption in the coming months and would deploy the entire party organisation to achieve this goal. “The aim is to target the Modi government directly. The “Hath se Hath Jodo’ campaign will be purely political,” Congress communications in charge Jairam Ramesh said.

It will run from Jan 26 for two months and will be the next stage of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. The country’s social, political, and economic situation is pathetic and it was reflected through the yatra. The new campaign will take the message of the yatra forward and focus on failures of the Modi government. We will continue this process with more such programs, Jairam said. The logo of the Hath Jodo campaign is the party’s hand symbol which is ‘Abhay Mudra’ meaning ‘Daro Mat’, he added.

According to AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which will conclude on Jan. 30 in Srinagar, has been like a “field impact study” for the party. “We have enough input from the people who spoke to Rahul Gandhi during the yatra. We can understand their pain due to demonetization, faulty GST, no jobs. The Hath Jodo campaign is for two months but it may be extended by two months if needed. We are also figuring out the second phase of the yatra,” Venugopal said.

To begin with, the Congress has twisted the acronym of the ruling party as “Bhrasht Jumla Party” which believes only in “development of a few, ensures self-growth and stabs everyone in the back,” to puncture the BJP’s slogan of “sabka sath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas.”

Accordingly, the chargesheet against the Modi government that will be distributed by the Congress workers to every household during Feb and March highlights the fact that the BJP became richer during the past eight years but used public funds worth over Rs 10,000 cr for image building of the Prime Minister.

The chargesheet also mentions how most of the infrastructure projects including railways, ports, and sea ports have gone to a select company and how the youth were suffering due to lack of jobs given the unemployment rate at 8.3 percent was highest in past 45 years and that the PM’s promise of 2 crore jobs per year was nowhere to be seen.

Talking about the security situation, the chargesheet mentions land grab by China while the PM gave a clean shit to the aggressor. The Congress has also alleged the BJP of denting the Constitution by toppling seven state governments by purchasing over 300 MLAs.

Further, the chargesheet mentions that demonetization and faulty GST forced over 23 million into poverty and took away 50 lakh jobs in the country while denting the small and medium industries. Further, the party says that high price rise has made life difficult for the commoners.

There was a 500 percent rise in hate speeches as the minorities and the marginalized were forced to live in fear, the Congress alleged while noting that the farmers too were under duress. While the Congress will highlight the failures of the Modi government, it has also asked the state units to prepare and distribute separate chargesheets against the local ruling parties over the coming months.

To ensure that the Hath Jodo campaign rolls out smoothly, the party has deployed several AICC observers who have held consultative sessions with the state units on how to achieve the objective of contacting the households. The door-to-door canvas of Congress would reach every house in the 10 lakh polling booths of the 6 lakh villages and 2.5 lakh gram panchayats