'Globalisation should be all-inclusive'

NEW DELHI: Even as the Congress-led UPA goes full-throttle on reforms, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has made a strong pitch against globalisation that is not ���all inclusive��� at the inauguration of a party organised two-day international conference commemorating 100 years of ���Satyagraha���.

Ms Gandhi also went on to make a strong case for comprehensive, universal nuclear disarmament while justifying India���s nuclear arsenal as strategic compulsion. In the backdrop of the serious debate on climate change, that has dominated another big world conference ��� The World Economic Forum ��� she also raised questions about the threat to ecological security and planetary survival posed by material wants and aspirations.

In what could be interpreted as a strong message to the Manmohan Singh government, which is often questioned about the effects of its free-market policies on the poor, she said: ���Our own country, for instance, has made spectacular gains over the past decade and is being rapidly transformed.

But destitution, poverty, malnutrition and illiteracy are still widespread. Inequality is very visible.��� In her speech as the chairperson of the conference, Ms Gandhi held that what was essential to Mahatma Gandhi���s passive resistance movement Satyagraha was economic growth that would lead to rise of all.

���To be sustainable, economic growth has, in turn, to be all-inclusive. All-inclusive is no longer the greatest good of the greatest number. It is actually ���sarvodaya���, or the rise of all. Mahatma Gandhi saw this as essential to Satyagraha itself,��� she said. She also added that economic growth could be sustainable only if it was in harmony with nature and the earth���s long-term future.

On nuclear disarmament, she said: ���Nuclear weapons have become a terrifying reality. They have become the very currency of power.��� Referring to her late husband and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi���s support for comprehensive universal nuclear disarmament, she said India had nuclear weapons but it was due to ���strategic compulsions for us, born out of the failure to persuade the world to abolish nuclear weapons���.

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, who also addressed the inaugural session, on his part, said that India was a ���responsible��� nuclear power which had affirmed its credible minimum deterrent and had adopted a self-imposed moratorium on testing and agreed to the no-first-use principle. Similar to globalisation and reform process, it emerged that the party was taking a more ideology-driven line whereas the government veered towards a pragmatic approach.

Addressing the main themes to be discussed at the conference ��� a non-violent approach to conflict resolution and peace-building ��� Ms Gandhi said the ���relevance of Mahatma Gandhi is not the real issue. Our ���preparedness��� for him is���.

The inaugural session was attended by former presidents Lech Walesa of Poland and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia and Nobel laureate Mohammed Yunus from Bangladesh. Left leaders Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan were at the function as were other UPA allies such RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav and DMK minister Dayanidhi Maran.