We’ll be back, stronger after this break, declares Sonia

PANAJI, May 30: The much-awaited speech by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Goa on Sunday -- the first since she withdrew her resignati...

PANAJI, May 30: The much-awaited speech by Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Goa on Sunday — the first since she withdrew her resignation as party chief — turned out to be a damp squib with the rebels led by Sharad Pawar and others being let off lightly. In contrast to the highly emotional outburst before the All India Congress Committee (AICC) last week, Gandhi dwelt on the party’s task for the Assembly elections in Goa on June 4.

Addressing a meagre crowd of about 2,500 persons at Panaji’s Campal grounds on the banks of the Mandovi river on a rainy day, Sonia Gandhi insisted that the Congress party will emerge stronger following its break with rebels led by Sharad Pawar, Purno Sangma and Tariq Anwar. "Those who did not have convictions in the party’s ideology have left it," Gandhi said. Clearly reverting to her earlier promises of providing constructive opposition to the government, Gandhi supported the BJP administration’s efforts to clear Pakistan-backed infiltrators in Jammu and Kashmir.

Howeverthe gist of Sonia’s ten minute long speech read out in English was a promise to deliver a stable government if voted to power in the forth coming Lok Sabha elections. "Coalitions cannot give stability… while the Congress voter failed to complete its five-year terms, seven years under opposition rule saw seven prime ministers," Gandhi said.

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Referring to the Assembly polls, Sonia pointed out that the lack of a clear mandate in the 1994 polls for the Congress party "caused a lot of problems for the people of Goa."

Gandhi, who was brought to the venue of the meeting by helicopter after her arrival at the Dabolim airport two hours late, echoed the promises made in the party’s manifesto. She promised that the Congress party would strive to implement the Prevention of Public Men’s Corruption Act. Clad in a cream coloured handloom saree with pallu draped over her head in a style reminiscent of Indira Gandhi, Sonia asked for a massive mandate for the Congress.

The normally taciturn Congress leader sought tostrike a rapport with the large number of women dressed in their Sunday beat by waving out to them.