The Congress will hold a meeting of its working committee today to discuss the prevailing political situation in the country, including the roadmap to step up pressure on the government on issues of students and the Ram temple donation ‘theft.’
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting will be held at Indira Bhawan at 3 pm. Party president Mallikarjun Kharge will chair it with top leaders, including former party chief Rahul Gandhi and general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal in attendance.
The opposition party's roadmap to corner the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre on issues of students and the Ram temple donation ‘theft’ would be on the agenda, according to reports.
Vande Mataram Row
The CWC meeting comes amid a political row over Vande Mataram during an Independence Day event at the AICC headquarters. The Congress has made it clear that its programmes will feature only the first two stanzas of the national song. Some Congress leaders, however, believe the party should tread carefully on an issue with nationalistic overtones, according to Indian Express.
The Congress, in its defence, cited a 1937 CWC resolution that freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore had backed limiting public rendition to the first two stanzas to avoid verses containing specific religious imagery.
Upoming Assembly Elections
Also, a review of the party's preparations for the Assembly polls early next year would be held. Polls are likely to take place in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur early next year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal to opposition parties to support a delimitation-linked bill to implement women's reservation in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies is also likely to come up for discussion as there is a possibility that it may be brought by the government in the near future.
Asked about the possibility of the government bringing the delimitation-linked bill for implementing women's reservation, Ramesh had last week said, "We are in touch with all parties. We continue to be in touch with all parties, I am sure that this issue will be discussed on August 19, when the CWC meets.
"We cannot afford to relax, you know, because they (government) will try all sorts of tricks. But they do not have the numbers, and the gap between what they claim to have now and what they need is not a small gap. It is a substantial two-digit gap."
We cannot afford to relax, you know, because they (government) will try all sorts of tricks.
After the last CWC meeting in April, the Congress had accused the Modi government of playing politics in the name of the women's-reservation law and asserted that the proposed delimitation exercise linked to it is "not constitutional" and can have "grave consequences".
