Rajiv did not use his 1984 mandate to create an atmosphere of fear: Sonia

She also lauded her son Rahul Gandhi’s act of quitting as the party chief after the Congress’ loss in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

Politics News: In a critique of the Narendra Modi government, but without naming it, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said that her husband Rajiv Gandhi did not use the strength of the massive mandate he had won in 1984 to create an atmosphere of fear, to intimidate and threaten or to crush dissent and different points of views.

She also lauded her son Rahul Gandhi’s act of quitting as the party chief after the party’s loss in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. She said Rajiv Gandhi believed if India had to occupy a special status on the world stage, it itself will need to be an inclusive society, which cannot be achieved with arrogance and sloganeering, but with action and conduct.

Addressing an event of her party to kick off the 75th birth anniversary celebrations of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi at the national capital’s KD Jadhav Stadium, Sonia Gandhi said electoral ups and down are inevitable and the challenges that the Congress confronts today are formidable.

“But we must continue our ideological struggle against the forces of divisiveness, the forces that are out to change the very nature of our society, the very Idea of India that is enshrined in our Constitution,” she said. The Congress has come for criticism, including from within the party, for its stand on Article 370 of the Constitution…