At the AICC session last Saturday, the Congress harked back to its old hauteur. Looking back, it’s been a reluctant transition to the coalition era for the Grand Old Party • Pachmarhi Declaration on September 6, 1998: Affirms that the party considers the present difficulties in forming one-party governments a transient phase in the evolution of our polity; pledges to restore the party to its primacy in national affairs; decides that coalitions will be considered only when absolutely necessary and that too on the basis of agreed programmes which will not weaken the party or compromise its basic ideology • Sonia Gandhi at the Vichar Manthan Shivir in Shimla, July 2003: The prevailing situation in the country makes it incumbent on all secular forces to intensify their efforts to evolve a strategy for combating communalism and religious fundamentalism and for ensuring the defeat of the BJP and its allies. The Congress would be prepared to enter into appropriate electoral or coalition arrangements with secular parties on the basis of mutual understanding, but always without compromising its basic ideology • Congress Manifesto, 2004: The Congress’ goal is to defeat the forces of obscurantism and bigotry who contributed nothing to the Freedom Movement or the making of our Constitution and whose sole objective is to subvert our millennial heritage and composite nationhood. In this sacred endeavour, the Congress has joined hands with like-minded political parties in different states. Congress and its various allies are united in their determination to defeat the BJP, which threatens to rewrite our past and wreck our future • Sonia Gandhi at AICC session on August 21, 2004: For all of us, a coalition at the Centre is a new experience. We have adjusted easily, proving our opponents and critics wrong • Sonia Gandhi at the AICC session on November 16, 2007: The Congress is committed to run the UPA but coalition meant ‘positive cooperation’ on the part of the parties. Working in a coalition does not mean that we should cede our political space forever• AICC Resolution, November 16, 2007: In the long term, there is no alternative to a revived Congress coming to power on its own
