P Chidambaram:





After Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi 's scathing attack against Narendra Modi-led NDA government yesterday, Congress today continued its aggressive stance at its three-day plenary session in Delhi.On the second day of the session, senior Congress leaders Manmohan Singh , P Chidambaram Anand Sharma came down heavily on the Modi government on issues ranging from foreign policy to the state of the economy. The session, which is a first since Gandhi’s elevation to the presidential post, is called ‘Change is now’ and is aimed at projecting young faces of the party at the forefront.Here are all the updates from the Congress Plenary * Rahul likens the current political scenario to battle of Mahabharata. "Centuries ago there was a huge battle on the field of Kurukshetra. The Kauravas were powerful and arrogant. The Pandavas were humble and fought for the truth. Like Kauravs, BJP is designed to fight for power, but like the Pandavs Congress will fight for the truth."*Congress can never be like BJP. The people of this country will accept a man accused of murder as BJP president, but will never accept the same in Congress. BJP is voice of a organisation, while Congress is the voice of the nation.* Congress party understands deeply that we are for truth. India expects more from Congress because it holds us to a higher standard while Modi government is corrupt. The corrupt and powerful control the conversation in the country.* Govt always says that India is the fastest growing economy in the world. But today millions of youth face unemployment. People have no jobs, farmers are committing suicide, but Modiji says "chalo yoga karte hain". PM diverts our attention and jumps from one event to another from Gabbar Singh tax to yoga in Parliament, but never talks about the issues.* They tell tribal, the jungle is not yours, tell farmers to work for nothing, tell Tamils to change language. They tell people of northeast we don't like what you eat and tell women to dress properly.* Meanwhile Nirav Modi, who carried out India's biggest theft, who has the same name as PM... What does Modi actually mean. It symbolises the collusion between India's biggest crony capitalist and PM of India.* One Modi gives another Modi Rs 30,000 crores of your money and in turn, Modi gives Modi money for marketing Modi and fighting elections.* But our organisation (Congress) needs to change. We have to change Congress. The delegates at the back (Congress workers) have energy and power to change. But there is a wall between our workers and leaders. My first job is to break this wall.* In Gujarat, we have seen a small example of this. We gave tickets to Congress workers and Modiji took a sea plane. If we give ticket to Congress worker, forget a sea plane you will see Modiji in a submarine.*BJP is spreading fear. For the first time, we saw four SC judges running to public for justice. There is a difference between RSS and Congress, we respect the country's institutions whereas RSS wants to finish them.* We will come back with allies and friends in 2019 and take this country forward. Demonetisation was a big lie... They said they would put an end to black money, to corruption. Every rally of PM has been financed by nothing but black money* Modi government inherited a strong economy. The task of development has to be continued by future generations. However, today, the Indian economy is decoupled from the world economy which is growing.* Only yesterday Krugman said no country in the world has increased its GDP in 10 years except India. Whatever NDA may say, the record speaks for itself* When world growth was picking up, Indian economy decoupled from that trend.* The current phase of economic growth started in 1990s when Rajiv Gandhi sowed seeds of liberalisation. This gained momentum under Dr Manmohan Singh. Whatever the BJP, the NDA may say, records speak for themselves.* It's the biggest achievement of Dr Manmohan Singh that 14 crore people were lifted out of poverty. I charge BJP government they have pushed people into poverty. Demonetisation pushed people into poverty. Hundreds of people died waiting in queues to withdraw their own money from the banks. A flawed GST pushed people into poverty.* The number of people below poverty line has increased in absolute numbers over the last four years.* On Demonetisation: RBI is still counting and won't tell us how much money has come back.I would like to tell the RBI officials — why don't you go to Hundi collectors in Tirupati? They count money faster than you.* Some thought that I wouldn't stand here to speak to you and present the economic resolution. I draw my courage and strength from each of you. If there is steel in me it has been instilled in me by 45 years of association with Congress party.* Modi government has mismanaged J&K dispute like never before. The atmosphere in the state is deteriorating every day. It's obvious from the fact that our borders are insecure, be it cross border-terror or internal.* When Modi ji was campaigning he made lots of tall promises. Those promises have not been fulfilled. He said we will provide 2 crore jobs, we have not seen even 2 lakh jobs.* Modi government made tall promises that farmers' income will be doubled in 6 years; it is just a jumla-type statement unlikely to be achieved. For that to achieve, a growth rate of 12% per year is necessary which is unthinkable in the current scenario. BJP-led govt messed up Indian economy.* India stands at the crossroads. We have opportunities, but we also have challenges. Congress party will provide a new pathway to chalk out the future of our country.* The defense expenditure of our country is no more than 1.6% of our GDP. This is far too inadequate to meet the challenges of our security apparatus and our needs* Congress party made India what it is today. It led the freedom struggle and guided India towards development after Independence. Today, we face similar challenges of carrying forward development and social justice. UPA govt could achieve a lot because of Sonia Gandhi's guidance* Modi govt has disrupted India's foreign policy. In the last four years they have made this a divisive policy. They have pursued this in a cavalier, non-serious manner.* PM is carried away by his own propaganda. Today it is a matter of concern that we have mismanaged our relations with major capitals of the world, with major strategic partners and our immediate neighborhood.Earlier, the party also adopted a resolution against government's foreign policy. Congress attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for pursuing a "personalised foreign policy", saying it was "confused and bereft of focus and direction".Moving the resolution on foreign policy, senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the Prime Minister was known for his "propaganda" and condemned his actions of showing disrespect to the party's predecessors saying: "It is not an insult to the Congress party or its leaders, but an insult to the nation."The resolution said: "Foreign policy has always been marked with continuity with the backing of a strong national consensus. Unfortunately, the BJP government has disrupted it, and its ill-advised actions have unravelled the national consensus."The discarding of India's historic role in the Non-Aligned Movement, and the continuous dismissal of our past accomplishments in foreign policy, led to the piquant situation of foreign leaders hailing Nehru's contributions at the Indo-African Forum Summit and the 50th Anniversary of the Bandung Conference," the resolution said.