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Rahul, Pranab give Cong spokespersons N-lessons

Congress pulled out all stops to showcase the agreement in the coming elections with party MP Rahul Gandhi saying "we should not be afraid to take bold steps".

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NEW DELHI: Congress spokespersons from across the country took a daylong crash course on the finer points of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal and its impact on the country’s strategic programme and foreign policy on Wednesday. 

The 60-odd pointmen of the party were also briefed on the measures being taken by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre to control inflation and the prevailing situation in Jammu arising out of the Amarnath controversy.

Initiated at the behest of the prime minister and the Congress president, the exercise was aimed at fine-tuning the party’s propaganda machinery in the run-up to the general polls. The Congress leadership has made no secret of its desire to make the nuclear deal one of its main election planks, but as far as the spokespersons are concerned, their main concern appeared to be inflation.

Finance minister P Chidambaram’s briefing exceeded the time allotted to him as he was bombarded with questions on the time it would take to bring down prices and the measures taken by the government in this regard. Though the spokespersons listened with interest to what foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, national security advisor MK Narayanan and Rahul Gandhi had to say on the nuclear deal, it was the question of inflation that concerned them the most.

“While everybody appreciates the nuclear deal, it’s the price situation that concerns people the most and we wanted the leaders to educate us on what they are doing about it,” a spokesman from Chhattisgarh said.

The nuclear issue too evoked interest with members eager to learn how the deal would impact the country’s foreign policy and its strategic programme.

“The opposition has been trying to tell the people that after this deal, we will have to toe the US line blindly and we will not be able to pursue our strategic programme,” Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Akhilesh Singh said.

Rahul Gandhi was among the last to speak and urged his colleagues to stop being defensive about the achievements of the UPA government.

Listing the nuclear deal, loan waiver, national rural employment guarantee scheme, the RTI and tribal bills as “landmark achievements”, the AICC general secretary told the spokespersons to aggressively counter opposition propaganda.

“There is nothing to be defensive about. This deal is for the good of the country and 10 years from now, people will talk of this as a turning point,” he told partymen.    
j_ansari@dnaindia.net

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