Cong leader Sudheeran wants party leadership to make introspection over its economic policies since 1991

Senior Congress leader V M Sudheeran has urged the party high command to make an ''honest and in-depth introspection'' over it's economic policies since 1991 to effectively counter the BJP-led government at the Centre, ''which is selling out the crest jewels of the nation's assets.'' In a letter to the party's interim president Sonia Gandhi, Sudheeran, while referring to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's statement criticizing the Centre's Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), lamented that the BJP leaders are propagating that the Congress party has no moral right to oppose these policies of the NDA government as they were only following the neo-liberal policies of the Congress pursued since 1991.

Sudheeran, who is also the former president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), said the Congress has to make ''sincere admissions about its deviations from Nehru-Indira economic policies and the mistakes in the past and should make necessary course-correction'' to regain the trust and confidence of the people.

''So it is high time and right time that Congress party takes the initiative and lead in organizing nation-wide strong protests, campaigns and sustained struggles, bringing together other like-minded political parties and civil society against the anti-national, anti-people policies and programs of the Modi government,'' he said in the letter dated September 8.

The veteran leader said ''adherence to pro-poor, pro-middle class socio-economic policies by our party only will strengthen Congress's credibility in taking up people's and nation's issues.'' Attacking the BJP government's policy, Sudheeran said it was pushing ahead with ''disastrous policies'' on the economic and social front.

''And if there is any political party capable of countering these policies at the national level, it is the Indian National Congress. ''Through nation-wide sustained campaigns and struggles, Congress can definitely expose the anti-people policies of BJP government and win over the confidence of the people,'' he said. Sudheeran has also marked a copy of the letter to Rahul Gandhi who recently slammed the Centre's move to monetize its assets across key sectors, saying the Modi dispensation is in the process of selling India's ''crown jewels'' built by previous governments with public money over 70 years.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi with former Union finance minister P Chidambaram, Gandhi had said the BJP has claimed that nothing happened in India for 70 years, but now all assets created in all these years are being sold.

The former Congress president had alleged that the Narendra Modi government's privatization plan was aimed at creating monopolies in key sectors which will kill jobs.

Gandhi had also alleged that the government was indulging in the creation of monopolies in the formal sector and the elimination of the informal sector.

Last month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had unveiled an ambitious Rs 6 lakh crore National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) that included unlocking value by involving private companies across infrastructure sectors -- from passenger trains and railway stations to airports, roads and stadiums.

As many as 25 Airports Authority of India (AAI) airports, including ones at Chennai, Bhopal, Varanasi, and Vadodara, as well as 40 railway stations, 15 railway stadiums and an unidentified number of railway colonies have been identified for getting private investments.