New Delhi April 12:
Cautioning against infighting and rebel candidates in the ongoing assembly elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has in a front-paged editorial in the latest issue of party mouthpiece Sandesh said that no one must challenge the party's decision on candidates. She has also slammed the opposition for "wasting" the budget session.
The editorial also emphasises the need to fight the assembly polls unitedly and expresses confidence that the party and its allies will emerge victorious in elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
"The key to success of the Congress would obviously be to listen to the call of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi to fight unitedly. Everyone cannot be given a seat but the party's decision should be considered as final and no one must challenge this. Whosoever so is chosen by the party must get the unstinted support of all Congress workers," the editorial said.
The editorial comes in the backdrop of several rebel candidates contesting in West Bengal as the party has not been able to accommodate ticket aspirants as it is contesting 65 of the 294 seats as part of alliance with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Accusing the opposition parties of wasting budget session, the editorial said: "The opposition parties have once again gone ahead and wasted the budget session due to their lack of commitment to Parliamentary democracy," and accused the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party of holding up Parliament on unsubstantiated WikiLeaks reports "that the whole world has ignored and later came back to haunt BJP itself".
"The budget session is the most important session, when the allocation for various ministries and various programmes is made. This should have been discussed and debated in parliament. It is indeed a matter of regret that this did not happen. The BJP should answer the public as to why it failed to discuss such an important issue and instead wasted the tax payers' money by forcing constant adjournments in parliament," the editorial said.
Hailing the budget as "good and balanced", it also favoured the Goods and Services Tax, contending out that a united tax would help pave the way for India to become a truly single market. "This act would allow a free movement of goods and services between states and thus help overcome the bottlenecks of the supply side," it said.
Cautioning against infighting and rebel candidates in the ongoing assembly elections, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has in a front-paged editorial in the latest issue of party mouthpiece Sandesh said that no one must challenge the party's decision on candidates. She has also slammed the opposition for "wasting" the budget session.
The editorial also emphasises the need to fight the assembly polls unitedly and expresses confidence that the party and its allies will emerge victorious in elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
"The key to success of the Congress would obviously be to listen to the call of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi to fight unitedly. Everyone cannot be given a seat but the party's decision should be considered as final and no one must challenge this. Whosoever so is chosen by the party must get the unstinted support of all Congress workers," the editorial said.
The editorial comes in the backdrop of several rebel candidates contesting in West Bengal as the party has not been able to accommodate ticket aspirants as it is contesting 65 of the 294 seats as part of alliance with Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Accusing the opposition parties of wasting budget session, the editorial said: "The opposition parties have once again gone ahead and wasted the budget session due to their lack of commitment to Parliamentary democracy," and accused the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party of holding up Parliament on unsubstantiated WikiLeaks reports "that the whole world has ignored and later came back to haunt BJP itself".
"The budget session is the most important session, when the allocation for various ministries and various programmes is made. This should have been discussed and debated in parliament. It is indeed a matter of regret that this did not happen. The BJP should answer the public as to why it failed to discuss such an important issue and instead wasted the tax payers' money by forcing constant adjournments in parliament," the editorial said.
Hailing the budget as "good and balanced", it also favoured the Goods and Services Tax, contending out that a united tax would help pave the way for India to become a truly single market. "This act would allow a free movement of goods and services between states and thus help overcome the bottlenecks of the supply side," it said.
