The Orissa crisis which is looming large on the Congress was almost overlooked apart from an informal reference to it by one member. The matter was soon closed when it was agreed that party president Sonia Gandhi was ``seized of it and would take a decision''. Most of the deliberations were on sections of the Pachmarhi Declaration, which the CWC has been taking up in parts over the last few weeks.

Today, the CWC cleared the setting up of a celtral election authority (CEA) for the party, on the lines of the government's Election Commission. The CWC authorised Sonia to appoint members to the CEA which will henceforth handle all organisational elections including that of the party president. TheCEA will have either three or five members as Sonia chooses and all of them will be people not holding any post in the party, meaning veterans with no political role to play in the party.

However, there are still many areas of the Pachmarhi Declaration which will be taken up in coming days. The CWC then formally passed a resolution on the Gujarat attacks which the party has taken seriously, especially after the VHP has named Sonia and alleged that conversions from Hinduism to Christianity increased after she became Congress president.

Said the CWC resolution: ``It is tragic that the sangh parivar is relentlessly implementing its campaign of targeting the minorities, their places of worship and intimidating individuals by violence and vindictive action instead of giving protection as enjoined by the Constitution of India and the laws of the land.

``The governments controlled by the BJP are conniving at these unscrupulous activities and the Prime Minister is only suggesting a national debate on theillegal actions prepetrated by the sangh parivar, instead of setting the law into motion against them. On the contrary, he (the PM) has given a clean chit to the administration of Gujarat thereby queering the legal pitch against those who have broken the law. The CWC deplores this cynical approach of the sangh parivar and the governments under its control,'' the resolution said.

The CWC also endorsed Sonia's recent speech on Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary where she said attacks on minorities amount to an attack on Hinduism. This was a rare line to take by a Congress president and the CWC has backed it.

The CWC resolution added: ``Hinduism is the most effective guarantor of secularism in India. The Congress appeals to the people to be vigilant and checkmate the diabolical agenda of the sangh parivar.''