Congress to take ‘paper-leak’, ‘chanda chori’ to grassroots; demands PM’s apology on ‘shuddhikaran’

New Delhi, Aug 19 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday resolved to corner the government on the issues of paper leaks, the overall education system, as well as “chanda chori” at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya at the grassroots level.

The opposition party also alleged that the government was following a “surrender policy” with “Chinese incursions” taking place in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Congress Working Committee meeting was held at Indira Bhawan, with Kharge chairing it and top leaders, including former party chiefs Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, attending it.

Addressing a press conference, Venugopal said a detailed discussion was held at the CWC meeting with 88 leaders attending and 33 speaking on the occasion.

“We are focused on three-four issues. Number one is paper leaks. The agitation done by the people of the country and the way the government dealt with that agitation was discussed. The CWC noted that the Monsoon Session of Parliament was successful for the Opposition and the government was on the back foot,” he said.

Gandhi’s ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’ will continue with more such gatherings in 800 cities, some of which will be headed by the former Congress president.

Congress president Kharge asked chief ministers from the party to work with education experts to come up with a roadmap to overhaul the education and examination system and submit a report to him, he said.

“‘Chanda Chori’ is a serious area of concern among people of this country. It is an issue associated with the sentiments of people. Those who used Ram Mandir for polarising people now stand exposed,” Venugopal said.

“We will take this issue to the grassroots level. We directed PCCs to take it up at the village and panchayat level,” he said.

Venugopal said the “Chinese incursion” in Arunachal was also discussed, he said.

It was reiterated that the Congress demands that women’s reservation be implemented on the current strength of 543 seats of the Lok Sabha, Venugopal said.

Ramesh, who was at the press conference, demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the country over the “shudhikaran” in Uttarakhand after Kharge’s programme there.

The CWC meeting was attended by senior leaders such as Ambika Sonia, Mukul Wasnik and P Chidambaram.

Congress chief ministers A Revanth Reddy (Telangana), V D Satheesan (Kerala), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), and D K Shivakumar (Karnataka) were also present.