Congress on plans 'Save Constitution' drive

Belagavi: The Congress on Thursday announced a 13-month-long political campaign, including padayatra, to raise issues such as the alleged attack on the Constitution and people's concerns over price rises and corruption.

The party also called for a major organisational overhaul based on accountability and capability starting immediately and running through the next year. These decisions were taken at the extended Congress Working Committee meeting -- 'Nav Satyagraha Baithak' -- to mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi assuming the presidentship of the party at the Belgaum session. Two resolutions were passed by the CWC -- one on Mahatma Gandhi and the other was a political one.  Top Congress leaders, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, among others, were in Belagavi to attend the “historic” meeting.

Addressing reporters along with Congress general secretary in-charge (communications) Jairam Ramesh and AICC media and publicity department head Pawan Khera, Congress general secretary in-charge (organisation) K C Venugopal said 2025 is going to be a year of an organisation revamping programme at every level, from booth to the top.

He said accountability and a thorough inquiry about the capability of the leadership will form the basis of a “massive revamp” of the organisation.

Venugopal also said there will be a ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, and Jai Samvidhan abhiyan’ from December 27, 2024 to January 26, 2026 which will be a continuous campaign featuring a continuous series of padayatras and village, block, district, and state-level rallies. This will be led by national, state and local level leadership, he said.

“In that campaign, we will raise the issue of attack on Constitution, degredation of values of Constitution, people’s issues such as price rise and corruption,” he said. In April, the Congress will hold an AICC session in Gujarat where Mahatma Gandhi was born, he informed.

Row over ‘Indian map'

Belagavi: A controversy has erupted over the alleged misrepresentation of the India map on the posters displayed by the Congress to commemorate the centenary of 1924 Congress session in Karnataka's Belagavi, with the BJP dubbing it as "vote bank" politics by the national party.

According to BJP and its ally JD(S) in Karnataka, the Indian map featured on the posters omits the Gilgit region of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir as well as the Aksai Chin region, currently under the Chinese administration, which are integral parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

Reacting to the controversy, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who is also the Congress Karnataka unit president, said the posters would be removed if there is any mistake. “Some leaders might have made some mistake, we are removing everything.

Don’t try to pick a small stone in the curd... We have done according to Indian tradition and values of those days... BJP is there to attack us, they can’t digest. There is no medicine for jealousy. Let them do what they want...” he said.