.He was speaking at a public meeting organised by the Tamil Nadu Congress Committee to celebrate the 125 years of the Indian National Congress and the centenary celebrations of former Minister and veteran Congress leader C. Subramaniam.
Mr. Chidambaram said, “Many of the speakers expressed their grievance and longing for adorning the seats of power in the State” and added that everyone in the Congress, including himself, shared the sentiment. “I have been longing for a Congress rule for the last 40 years but the only thing is that I have not expressed the same many a time.”
“While the Congress party can rule India, it is not happening in Tamil Nadu.”
After 1980, there had not been a single instance of a Prime Minister getting re-elected, but Manmohan Singh broke that jinx under the able guidance of AICC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. He explained that based on the performance of the “first edition of the UPA government, the people gave us 61 seats more in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections more than what we won in 2004”.
The Congress-led UPA government had introduced a lot of schemes benefiting the people including those in Tamil Nadu. “We should take it to the people and enlighten them”. “Many schemes would not have got the funding/budgetary allocation but for the growth in terms of GDP”, he added.
Mr.Chidambaram told the audience, “People in Tamil Nadu might give us a chance” but refused to speculate whether they would give it to the Congress alone. The Congress should prepare itself and win the confidence of the people. The electorate could give a mandate wherein the party could share power with other parties. In Tamil Nadu, an alliance would come to power and that alliance should be willing to accommodate the Congress in the Government.
Comparing the performance of the present UPA Government with that of its previous term in office, Mr.Chidambaram said thanks to the significant growth there had been a significant increase in allocations for all sectors. The hike in prices was because the Government wanted to give reasonable procurement price to protect the agriculture sector.
Mr.Chidrambaram, pointing out that the Right to Food legislation is in the offing, said the Congress believed in legislation and not in schemes for ensuring the sustenance of these programmes. Legislation for combating caste/communal clashes, legislation against honour killings, legislation for ensuring the entitlements of the minority and women were in the pipeline. Similarly, legislation for more courts and judges were under preparation.
TNCC President K.V. Thangkabalu said the Centre was funding many of the development works and welfare activities in various States and listed them including the ones under implementation in Tamil Nadu.
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