AN APPEAL

The ten years of the BJP/NDA government have been marked by exaggeration and publicity rather than substance and performance. The economy has registered less-than-satisfactory growth. Widespread unemployment, high inflation and falling consumption have debilitated even this modest growth.

While the poor and the middle classes have been hit below the belt, the atmosphere in the country has become hate-filled and divisive. Constitutional values have been pushed to the background and majoritarianism has taken over

Inequalities have widened. Every section of the people lives in fear.

What India and the Indian people need at this time is a decisive break from the path of the last ten years. The people yearn to walk on the road of all-round development, equality, equity, freedom and justice. Congress has the capability to provide the leadership to the people to walk on this new road.

The lessons of history are there before you. Congress delivered Independence. Congress laid the foundations of democracy. Congress steered the country’s economic development through the 1950s and 1960s. Congress governments fought the wars of 1965 and 1971 and protected the sovereignty and integrity of India. Congress brought about a paradigm change in 1991 and ushered in an era of impressive growth. In the last ten years, the Congress has been the bulwark against illiberalism and authoritarianism. Congress has stood with the people in their fight against injustice and oppressive laws.

Bearing in mind the lessons of history, the Congress appeals to you to repose your faith once again in the Indian National Congress.

We promise you greater freedom, faster growth, more equitable development and justice for all. We appeal to you to vote for the ‘Hand’ symbol and for the candidates of the Indian National Congress

It is time to remind ourselves of Tagore's immortal words in Gitanjali:

“

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

”

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