Letter to Congress Workers

Dear friends,

I am very happy to greet you as we enter the 56th year of our independence. These 55 years have been a period of hard work and constant struggle to develop the nation on the one hand and to defend and strengthen democracy on the other. The Congress Party has played a major role in this historic endeavour and bequeathed to us a most precious legacy. But today this legacy that has sustained our nation through thick and thin is in the danger of being destroyed. The institutions, traditions and norms that have been developed with care and respect to fairness, justice and equity are being violated with utter impunity by the parties which came to power by sheer accident. Bereft of principles, policies and programmes, these parties have been trampling peoples’ interests to promote obscurantist, partisan ideologies based on caste, creed and religion. Their incapacity to govern and their inability to be fair and democratic has begun telling on the nation.

The country is being plundered. The shocking revelation of high handed allotment of petrol pumps, gas agencies and kerosene depots violating all norms has stunned the nation. We demanded a CBI inquiry and the resignation of the Petroleum Minister. These are very reasonable demands. But the Government has refused them. Instead, it is making a futile attempt to whitewash the issues. Cancellation of all the allotments and throwing mud on us does not help.

This is the most tainted government. Three of its ministers are facing charges duly framed in a criminal court and a fourth one who resigned his position because his conduct was under investigation by a Commission of Inquiry, has returned to the Cabinet although the Inquiry is still on. And now we have the Petroleum Minister still on his chair even after the unearthing of a scandal running to thousands of crores of rupees.

The venality of the BJP and its allies quite takes one’s breath away. The hypocracy of the self-righteous posturing they displayed in the past stands exposed. Democracy is founded in well-accepted ethical values. There is no place in democracy for the kind of blatant misuse of public funds and the lining of private pockets which has been so much in evidence ever since the BJP Government is in office.

When the Gujarat Assembly was dissolved we suggested President’s rule for a brief period for normalcy to be restored before Assembly elections are held. In its usual high handed manner, the BJP had rejected our demand. Now the Election Commission has said that Gujarat is not ready for election. We stand vindicated.

You all have a great deal of work ahead of you. There is so much to be done to help displaced people in Gujarat to return to their homes. In Jammu and Kashmir, where Assembly elections are due, we have to infuse confidence in the people to support and strengthen democratic path. And then the drought in several states needs to be attended to alleviate the miseries of our farmer brothers and sisters.

Every Independence Day is a day of renewal of our pledge to the nation, reaffirmation of our commitment to the principles of democracy secularism, which alone hold promise to all our citizens.