New Delhi:The Congress on Thursday said the country was facing several challenges, including a sliding economy, unemployment, high prices of food items, protection of the weaker sections, internal security and polarization and it was the responsibility of the grand old party to step up. “There are big challenges before the people. We have to ask if we can build a new India like this. Is this in line with the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and Patel,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said a day before the three-day Chintan Shivir, which opens at Rajasthan’s Udaipur on Friday? “It is natural that the Congress should fulfil its responsibility. We need to look at our strengths and weaknesses and bring about changes in the party according to the present challenges. Hence the Chintan Shivir,” he said.
The shivir comes almost a decade after the last such session, which was held in Jaipur in 2013. “The present challenges are different than in 2013,” said Surjewala. Detailing the problems, the Congress leader mentioned issues like price rise, and fuel price hikes while the Centre earned Rs 27 lakh crore from fuel taxes in the past eight years. He further said that there was GST on farm inputs, the subsidy was being reduced, there is no MSP guarantee, the MGNREGS budget has been reduced, farmer income not doubled till 2022, tribal rights were being eroded and their welfare budgets were cut to only four per cent in the Union Budget.