There were demands in CWC for Rahul Gandhi to embark on a second Bharat Jodo Yatra. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the matter is under consideration of the leadership.

From divisive politics to “assault” on the Constitution and federal polity, the government’s handling of the internal security situation to threats by China and bread-and-butter issues such as price-rise and unemployment, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), which is in session in Hyderabad, on Saturday virtually framed the party’s narrative for the Lok Sabha election campaign.

While the party did not spell out an alternative vision, it projected the INDIA alliance as the alternative to BJP, which it said can free the country of divisive and polarising politics, strengthen forces of social equity and justice and ensure that a government that is responsible, responsive, sensitive, transparent and accountable is formed.

There were demands in CWC for Rahul Gandhi to embark on a second Bharat Jodo Yatra. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the matter is under consideration of the leadership.

The party said the yatra was a “transformational moment in the nation’s politics — to unite the people against the forces that are dividing India; to raise voices of the people against growing inequality, falling incomes, rising youth unemployment and the sky-high prices of essential commodities; and to resist the growing authoritarianism, the capture of democratic institutions and the attack on our federal structure”.

It slammed the government over the “total breakdown of the Constitutional machinery in Manipur and the continuing violence”, and also asked the government to “come clean on the border dispute with China and take a resolute stand against any challenge to the territorial integrity of India”.

The larger argument of the party was that the government had failed to manage both internal and external security.

“After more than four months, Manipur is bitterly divided due to the BJP’s polarisation agenda. The silence and neglect of the Prime Minister, the failure of the Home Minister and the intransigence of the Chief Minister have led to an unprecedented situation where there are repeated clashes between the security forces and civilians and between the Army/Assam Rifles and the state police force,” the resolution passed by CWC said.

The sparks from Manipur, it said, are now threatening to spread to the wider north-eastern region. On China, the party said “the Prime Minister’s clean chit to China on 19th June, 2020 and his continued refusal to admit the loss of territory have misled the country, belittled the sacrifices of our jawans, and emboldened China to continue with its transgressions”.

The party argued that casteism, communalism and regionalism have aggravated in the last nine years because of the “divisive and discriminatory policies adopted by the Prime Minister, his government and his party”.

“The political discourse of the BJP, inside and outside Parliament, is laced with poison, promotes hate speech and violence, encourages divisive forces, and polarises society,” the resolution said. Tthe party said the Centre’s “stubborn refusal” to conduct a caste census has exposed BJP’s lack of commitment to social justice.

The resolution passed by CWC was heavily critical of the BJP-led government at the Centre and listed its “failures” across several fronts. But it did not spell out an alternative vision of the party, which it had been promising for long; neither did it weave a Congress “story” to regain power and reconnect with the electorate.