Editorial

Time for Unity

When the Congress Party extended support to the Samajwadi Party’s efforts to form a government following the collapse of the BJP-backed BSP regime in Uttar Pradesh, it had only one objective – to promote and strengthen unity of secular parties and forces. Considerations of power and pelf were not on the Congress agenda. True, the Congress has been out of power in Uttar Pradesh for 14 long years. But, participating in the government is secondary to the question of forming a secular front. Smt. Sonia Gandhi has fulfilled her pledge to help in consolidation of secular forces capable of fighting narrow religious fundamentalist groups led by the BJP. The Congress Party’s thinking throughout its 118-year history has been dominated first and foremost by national interest.

This was the reason why whenever a crisis struck the nation, the people looked to the Congress Party for rescue and relief. One such situation is prevailing in the country today – the growth of the fundamentalist forces. If allowed unchecked it can cause irreparable damage to the Indian nation-state, undermine its independence.

The need of the hour is to bring about unity of political parties which are ready to face and defeat fundamentalist groups. It was in this perspective that Smt. Sonia Gandhi had described the present struggle as an ideological battle in her address at the Vichar Manthan Shivir in Shimla. She said "each succeeding generation of free Indians must make their mark on the pages of history. It is now for us to take the mighty pen of nationalism and write the message of our times and of our generation. This is all the more essential since the very idea of Indian nationhood, which we have inherited and cherished, is under sustained attack and assault".

The path ahead calls for equal zeal, sincerity and commitment from the parties involved in the new coalition in U.P. The Congress Party has been advising that the coalition must now formulate a Common Minimum Programme and implement it with determination. The CMP must address the pressing problems tormenting the State. A CMP in U.P and its success will open up new vistas before the secular, democratic and liberal forces at various other levels. This is the need of the hour.

The people of this country are completely disillusioned with the BJP-led government at the Centre and therefore, Smt. Sonia Gandhi rightly felt the urgent need to evolve a secular alternative to the NDA at the national level. Time has come for true nationalist forces to set aside individual and partisan predilections and move in unison to fulfill a patriotic duty.