This brings me to the next important aspect in the strategy of the Congress party. There will have to be a purposeful effort to realise the ideal of social and economic justice in the next few years. This will call for sharing of hardships and increasing the range of public services which benefit all. The area of private affluence will have to be restricted drastically. This will inevitably imply a sound incomes policy related to the social objective of justice to those who have suffered long and without hope.
The foremost task before the party and the entire country, however, is to maintain the integrity of the country and foster the feeling of communal harmony. Throughout the freedom struggle and the troubled and distressing days of partition, we fervently adhered to our commitment to the cause of secularism. The recent happenings in Ahmedabad have dealt a blow to any complacency in this behalf. India as a nation cannot survive if communal virus is not stemmed out for ever and the idea of secularism is not translated into reality. The Congress will have to drive home the idea that the concept of the Indian nation is not linked with any religion. Its whole basis is common citizenship, common rights and common obligations. There are no preferred citizens of any class, any religion or any group. Communalism is one of the most serious problems we face. This grim reality will have to be understood in all its dimensions by the rank and file of the party, and concerted, purposeful and dedicated efforts will have to be made to strengthen the forces of secularism.
The other disturbing factor in the public life of the country is the increasing violence. Sadly enough, violence is being claimed to be a legitimate form of protest in various fields. Here the question is not merely of law enforcement; it is in reality one that touches the fundamentals of our political order. In our society, violence can have no place as an instrument of social, economic or political change. As in the case of communal attitudes and values, a determined effort has to be made to change the ideas that people believe in. Violence, whether in the pursuit of ideology or for redressal of grievances, arises first in the minds of men, and it is here that the superiority of the democratic system will have to be established firmly.
