CWC meets to discuss ways to attack govt during Budget session

22 February, New Delhi

The Congress Working Committee, the apex decision making body of the party, met this evening to discuss the political situation in the country ahead of the budget session of Parliament, which begins tomorrow.

The CWC meeting, chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence and attended by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and senior leaders, also deliberated on way to attack the government during Parliament session.

The meeting came a day before the commencement of the Budget session, which will take up the financial business of the government, including the Railways Budget, the General Budget and the Economic Survey. The session is also likely to take up bills like the GST and the Real Estate Bill, considered crucial in the direction of the pursuance of the economic reforms agenda of the NDA government.

The CWC deliberated on the ways to take on the government in wake of attempts by the NDA and the BJP to dub the Congress as anti-national following their opposition to the police crackdown on the JNU in wake of the February 9 event to observe death anniversary of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. Sources said it also discussed the development in the Hyderabad university where dalit scholar Rohith Vermula recently committed following his suspension.

The Congress has been expressing its concern over the police crackdown on JNU, saying it was unfair to brand an entire university as anti-national due to action of some people. The coming assembly elections in West Bengal, Assam and other states also figured in the discussions at the meeting.

The Congress is looking to attack the Modi government in Parliament on several issues like violence in JNU and Hyderabad universities, the installation of a new government in Arunachal by toppling an elected government, price rise and the poor state of the Indian economy.