Cong needs to counter BJP’s ill-campaign to get next chance at Centre : Digvijaya

New Delhi, May 21: AICC General Secretary and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijaya Singh, Saturday said if Congress has to win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and return to power at the Centre, it will have to counter the BJP-RSS combine’s “ill-campaign” — “Congress mukt Bharat” — on social media. He was addressing a gathering at an interactive session on “Lok Sabha Elections-2019: Challenges and opportunities for Congress” here. Mr Singh said, “I don’t say that all people are Congress followers but they are definitely Congress supporters. They believe in the Congress ideology and therefore backed Congress throughout. Congress was the principal party which fought for the country’s Independence and got a ‘raw’ nation which required “fittings” and nurturing from the scratch. Congress successfully did that for over fifty years and the common Indian was happy.” ‘But somewhere, the emergence of other parties in-between the rule of Congress, was also witnessed. Congress lost elections but for a brief period and came out shining with more strength. The period was that of Seventies when Emergency was imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975. She was re-elected in 1980 with a thumping majority and Congress run continued with former PM Rajiv Gandhi at the helm in 1984 after Indira’s assassination. And again in 2004, Congress was back and continued till 2014,’Mr Singh stated. ‘However, formation of NDA Government at the Centre in 2014 has thrown many questions in front of the Congress with the people’s mandate weakening in favour of the party. SWOT analysis would reveal the causes but the immediate reason appears to be the weak leadership of the party. Nevertheless, the party has always risen whenever it has fallen,’ he remarked. Mr Digvijaya Singh said, “If there is one party which can fight tooth and nail with the BJP and the RSS, it is the Congress. But the Congress needs to be proactive on social media to reply to the ill-campaign and ill-information being spread by the rival party.’ On demonetisation, Mr Singh was of the view that the BJP harassed people in the name of demonetisation as the amount withdrawal limit from banks was only Rs 24,000 at one time and on the other hand one of their functionaries was lavishly spending Rs 500-crore on his daughter’s wedding after the note ban. BJP needs to be made answerable to all these in people’s court. ‘To stop BJP grabbing power in 2019, the opposition has to get united and like-minded parties form a front and promise to provide a clean government,’ he observed. ‘The nation does not need Cong mukt Bharat. it needs an India which is free from fears of unemployment, terror, violence, division in the name of religion, caste or creed, poverty and disease,” he said. Farmers need freedom from fear of crop loss and debt and violence affected regions like Kashmir and Northest need freedom from bloodshed. “No 56-inch chest but a big heart is what is needed to push the nation out of the turmoil,’ the former MP CM noted. Attacking PM, Mr Singh said,”fake news” is Prime Minister’s strength and the success of his policies and schemes rides on that. Concluding, he said, “2019 would be an opportune time to show doors to NDA and give the command to Congress once again. Put the country back on trail of progress and development and usher the country into 100 glorious years of Independence.’