Early next month, Congress party will launch nationwide protests against economic issues like inflation and rising fuel prices. The party would expand its Covid outreach to cover 3 crore households in 30 days. After Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s meeting with top party officials on Thursday, people familiar with the matter said that this would be a major political manoeuvre to make its presence felt on ground after losing elections in Kerala, West Bengal and Assam.
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Gandhi referred extensively to the Covid19 pandemic in her opening address at the meeting with the party’s general secretaries, state in-charges and state leadership. Sonia Gandhi stressed that it was “absolutely essential that our party plays an active role” to ensure full vaccination coverage and encourage people to register for the jabs. In addition, the Congress should also continue to put pressure on the government to treble the daily rate of vaccination to ensure at least 75% of India’s population is inoculated at the end of 2021.”
She also asked the leaders to give “urgent attention” and take “provocative measures” in the context of a possible third wave of the Covid virus. She said, “We have to take steps to be better prepared if and when this strikes. The second wave these past four months has been devastating for lakhs and lakhs of individual families all over the country. We must learn from this traumatic experience so that we do not have to experience it yet again.”
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In her opening remarks, Gandhi said, “No doubt, this is dependent entirely on the adequacy of vaccine supply. We must continue to put pressure on the Union government which has, at our Party’s insistence, finally taken on the responsibility for this. At the same time, we have to ensure that registration takes place, that vaccine hesitancy wherever evident is overcome and vaccine wastage is minimized.”
Sonia Gandhi also spoke about the “intolerable burden being imposed by rising fuel prices” and how “prices of many other essential commodities like pulses and edible oils too have skyrocketed causing wide-spread distress.”
Indian National Congress followed up the concern, announcing that it will launch a 10-day-long nationwide agitation from July 7 with programmes at block, district and state levels. The grand old party’s frontal organizations will also step up. A cycle yatra at district levels, march and processions at state level would be organized. Even a signature campaign at petrol pumps to demand reduction of prices of petrol and diesel would be part of this programme.
A senior Congress leader said that the party has not been able to carry out “political activities” due to Covid19 restrictions and that it needs to get back in the game.
The leader who was present at Thursday’s meeting said, “We did campaign in the recent assembly elections, but round-the-year movements were missing. And in some states, lack of opposition activities has been a key reason for electoral losses.”
The party’s Covid19 care campaign, which asks each volunteer to reach out to more than 200 households every day for a month, is targeted to cover 7,199 blocks and 7,935 towns across the country’s 736 districts. The campaign is a part of the plan detailed in a circular on Thursday by general secretary organization KC Venugopal.
In the urban and semi-urban areas, under its Covid19 care programme, Congress wants to approach “auto/battery and cycle rickshaw drivers, plumbers, electricians, gardeners, mechanics, domestic workers, slum dwellers, delivery boys and street vendors”.
