NEW DELHI: The Congress’s highest decision-making body meeting concluded on Saturday that the BJP Party is trying to polarise the whole country over the Assam citizens’ list just ahead of next year’s 2019 election to divert attention from its failures. The Congress vowed at the meet that they will work very closely with other opposition parties to bring the backlogs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s track record on corruption and lack of jobs.

The Congress revived its sharp attacks on the BJP-led national coalition over the issue of giving clean chit to fugitive businessman Mehul Choksi by the government, the controversial deal made to buy Rafale fighter jets and the lack of employment opportunities for the unemployed youth.

“Whether it is Rafale or the bank scandals… these are big issues. In the coming days, you will see the opposition speak in one,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, adding that all these issues would be strictly raised in parliament by party lawmakers. Outside the house, other leaders will lead a public campaign to counter the government.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi later said on his Twitter handle that the top party panel had already discussed the political situation. He also referred to “the huge opportunity for the Congress to highlight issues of corruption and failure of the government to provide jobs to our youth”. This is the second such meeting chaired by him in a fortnight. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi did not attend today’s meeting.

On the issue of the exclusion of 4 lakh people from the Assam citizens’ list, the Congress Working Committee also appeared to have done its strategy home-work to counter the shrill attacks from the BJP Party that accuses them of supporting illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

In parliament this week, BJP chief Amit Shah had utterly claimed that the BJP was implementing the Assam Accord that former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had signed because only PM Modi had all the courage that it took to build the register.

Randeep Singh Surjewala, the Congress Party spokesman said the pact was signed by Rajiv Gandhi for peace and development in Assamese state. He called it “a baby of Assam Accord” and underlined that it was only the UPA government that had taken the first actual and real step to build this database in 2005. It had spent more than Rs. 400 crore on the exercise unlike the Rs. 5 lakh that the Congress claimed, had been earmarked by the previous NDA government led by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The draft citizens’ list that has got excluded 40 people is said to be the first step to build the register that had started during its tenure, Mr Surjewala said.

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