Congress for accountability as BJP threatens ‘mahasangram’

Home Minister P Chidambaram,who prepares a monthly report of the activities of his ministry,suggested that other ministries should also be accountable to the Prime Minister and the government should give six-monthly progress reports to the Congress.

“The Prime Minister should call each and every ministry and department and seek a report from them every three months about what it has done during this period.”

“And every six months,the Congress President should summon the government and ask what it has done,” Chidambaram said in his address at the Congress Plenary here.

In her concluding remarks,Congress President Sonia Gandhi too recommended more accountability of the party’s state and district level committees to report back to the All India Congress Committee on a regular basis regarding their activities,programmes and campaigns.

Asserting that Congress will take corruption head on,Congress President Sonia Gandhi today hailed as inspiring Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance that he will take forward her five-point action plan to battle the menace.

“We will take corruption head on and demonstrate it through our actions and not through words alone. I had made specific suggestions in this regard (in the speech yesterday) and the Prime Minister,in his inspiring address this morning,assured us that he will take them forward,she said in her remarks winding up the two-day Congress plenary here.

Gandhi said it was the duty of Congress workers to counter all accusations levelled by the Opposition,particularly the BJP,calling them as “blatantly baseless and completely unfounded”.

“It is absolutely essential that we confront our political opponents aggressively,” she said,adding the Congress-led UPA government has accomplished a “great deal” in the last six and a half years and “we have every reason to be proud of our record”.

“This is a record that stands out distinctively when compared to what the NDA did during its time. Nothing can detract from our solid accomplishments. It is our duty to propagate them among the people,” the Congress President said in the presence of the Prime Minister.

She asked the party activists to launch nationwide ‘Jan Jagran Abhiyan’ to “expose the BJP for its double-speak on the issue of corruption. There should be at least one public meeting in every assembly constituency”.

Observing that several central flagship programmes had been co-opted by non-Congress governments ruling in different states under different names,Gandhi said these state governments were “taking credit from our programmes”,which had been promised in “our manifesto”.

Directing party workers to expose this,she asked PCC chiefs to appoint monitoring committees to get systematic feedback on their implementation and submit assessment report every quarter to the AICC.

Meanwhile,alleging that the Congress-led UPA government has made “right to corruption” a fundamental right for its ministers,BJP today said it will launch a nation-wide campaign with a huge rally here on Wednesday against scams in the UPA regime.

The NDA will hold ‘Mahasangram’ rallies in major states including Bihar,Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh,Andhra Pradesh,Tamil Nadu,Orissa and Haryana to “expose” the “widespread corruption” in the UPA government,BJP Vice President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters here.

“If there is any major achievement of the UPA in 2010,then it has to be making corruption a right by the government like any other rights such as right to information and right to work,” Naqvi said.

“The government and the Prime Minister have given this right to ministers and Congress leaders. Now efforts are on to protect those involved in the scams,” he alleged.

Resolving to take the fight against UPA to the grassroot level,Naqvi said JD-U chief Sharad Yadav,Akali Dal leader Prakash Singh Badal and senior BJP leaders L K Advani,Nitin Gadkari,Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley are among those who will participate in Wednesday’s rally at Ramlila ground.

Referring to Congress leaders at its three-day plenary targeting the main opposition,Naqvi said it will be difficult for the ruling party to stop the downslide even if it resorts to “BJP bashing”.

“From head to toe,this government is involved in corruption. We are determined to take the fight against corruption to the grassroot level. The fact that 75 per cent of the total speeches delivered at the plenary revolved around BJP shows our growing strength and their frustration,” he said.

Naqvi also released a booklet listing major scams of the year including alleged irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation,bunglings in Commonwealth Games and Adarsh Society scam.

BJP National Secretary Kirit Somaiya,who prepared the booklet,said similar booklets will be prepared at state level against Congress-ruled governments in various states.

Delhi BJP chief Vijendra Gupta said the city party unit has already held over 300 meetings across Delhi seeking peoples’ cooperation for the mega rally.