UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi yesterday in an apparent attack on the BJP said that the constitutional institutions are being tampered with and there is no space for dissent in the current regime. Addressing 'People’s Agenda - Jan Sarokar 2019' event in Delhi, she said, "Today, we are being taught the new definition of patriotism while those not accepting diversity are being called patriots. Country's soul is being crushed through well-planned conspiracy, it's a matter of concern for all of us.

"The current government is not focusing on creating opportunities for people but on politics to benefit certain industrialists, she added. Gandhi alleged the current government was not ready to respect dissent and said when there are attacks on people who stick to their faith, this government turns away. She also alleged that the BJP-led government was not ready to fulfil its duty of enforcing the rule of law in the country.

The Congress leader called on the civil society to come together to fight against attempts by the current government to tamper with the constitutional institutions established over the last 65 years.

“India today needs a government that is nishpaksh (impartial). Secularism needs to be re-established and the constitutional framework secured,” Sonia Gandhi said.

Talking about the UPA’s experiment with the National Advisory Council (NAC), Sonia Gandhi said, “At the NAC, we brought together the power of the government and ground experience of civil society together.

This helped in bringing the Right To Information, Right to Food and Right to Education, among other such measures to secure the rights of people.”

 She promised that whatever the Congress has committed during campaigning for the polls would be fulfilled. Sonia Gandhi will contest the Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh’s Rae Bareli seat which she has been representing since 1999.

BK