Majority no licence to impose ideology: Sonia Gandhi

NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi has alleged that the Modi government had ‘mistaken its parliamentary majority for a licence to impose its ideology’ on the people. Accusing the NDA government of trying to polarise society and referring to the attack on Dalits in Gujarat, Gandhi claimed that the Centre was condoning ‘social terror’.

She said militants in J&K should be dealt with firmly but underlined the need ‘to show restraint and sensitivity’ to the harsh realities of recent months. Gandhi’s address to the general body meeting of party MPs, however, skipped the GST Bill at a time the government has engaged the Congress to find a way out for the tax legislation. Criticising the Modi government for ‘deception’, ‘glib marketing slogans’ and ‘snatching the rights of Dalits, adivasi’, she spoke about the attack on Dalits in Gujarat, calling it ‘just one example of the social terror this government condones’.

Referring to the recent attempt to destablise Congress governments in Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh and how “a pen” was used to manipulate the Rajya Sabha polls in Haryana, she said, “the Modi government has mistaken its parliamentary majority for a license to impose its ideology on our people.

It seems to have forgotten that parliamentary majority can never be the reason to abandon the principles and practice of constitutionalism.” Maintaining that the Manmohan Singh government had worked for peace and development in J&K, Gandhi said: “recent events in the Valley are tragic and pose a grave danger to the country.

There can be no compromise on national security. Militants must be dealt with firmly.” She lashed out the handling of foreign policy by the prime minister. “How does the Modi government explain the incoherence of its foreign policy despite PM’s frequent travels abroad, his equally frequent embraces of world leaders and impromptu birthday calls.”