Given a standing ovation at perhaps her last address to a Congress plenary session, Sonia Gandhi on Saturday took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling his government “arrogant” and accusing it of “dramebaazi”. Taking the podium after an emotional hug from son and new party president Rahul Gandhi, Sonia called upon the party to work with him to begin a “new chapter” for the Congress in “challenging times”. Congress workers should be “ready for any kind of sacrifice to strengthen the party” and make the country “free from discrimination, vendetta politics and arrogance of power”, she said. “The Congress has never cowered before the aggression of power and will never do so,” Sonia said amid cheers from AICC members gathered at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here for the 84th plenary session. Citing the Gujarat poll verdict, where a resurgent Congress reduced the BJP's tally to below 100, and the party’s win in recent bypolls in Rajasthan and MP, the former Congress president said, “Those who want to throw the very identity of the Congress out of the country do not know how much people love it. There is only one priority today and that is how to make the Congress stronger. The Congress is not just a party, but an idea several years ahead of its time.” She recalled how the Congress had emerged stronger after Indira Gandhi returned to the Lok Sabha in 1978 by-election from Karnataka’s Chikmagalur, after the Janata Party years. Sonia said Rahul taking over the reins was the beginning of a new chapter. “The challenges we are facing are not usual ones. We need to make an India free of corruption and vendetta. Under (party) president Rahul Gandhi, let us pledge that we will make all efforts to to do this,” she said. With the party facing one of its worst crises — out of power in all but three states, and down to 48 in 545-member Lok Sabha — Sonia reminded party leaders that the Congress had bounced back earlier. She talked of the 2004 Lok Sabha win, led by her, when the Congress achieved “what many thought would be impossible”. She urged Congress workers to launch a struggle to free the country from “fear of those in power”. Taking on Modi, Sonia said, "The slogans of sab ka saath, sab ka vikas and na khaoonga, na khaane doonga are only dramebaazi (drama) — a trick to grab power. The Congress is fighting the tyrannical Modi government. People have begun to realise that promises made by the BJP in 2014 were hollow." She said, “Under the leadership of Manmohan Singh, the economy flourished. Our government formed policies which lifted millions from poverty. Today, the Modi government is weakening these policies. I feel disappointed and sad.”
