Sonia Gandhi’s progressive vision bringing in positive changes in the lives of the poor

Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi have left a deep imprint on Indian history. As UPA Chairperson she has changed the lives of the poor in the country, positively. It was due to her initiative, consistent intervention and pro-poor ideology that Congress-led UPA Government at the centre implemented four major polices — the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the Right to Information Act (RTI), the Right to Education Act (RTE) and, finally, the most important one, the Food Security Ordinance (FSO) and by these progressive polices Indian democracy has become seriously transformative.

MGNREGA has helped the poor in the villages sustain themselves with an assured wage that goes straight into their bank accounts. This has had multiple effects on the villagers’ attitude and life style. For the first time in the history, villagers are getting wages without any humiliating engagement with landlords or the rural rich. Second, they now have established connectivity with the banking system, which was not a common thing for them. One can see the impact of this flag ship scheme on the health of the rural poor. They look better fed and better dressed than they did five years ago.

The Right to Information Act is another revolutionary step and has exposed various corruption cases across the country. For an average Indian politician, corruption is routine and systemic but for Sonia Gandhi it is very serious and she believed that graft is like a cancer and we should tackle it effectively. And her consistent efforts helped to make this important policy a reality.

Every child’s right to education was another urgent matter of importancde for Sonia Gandhi. With her initiative, Congress-led central government brought in  the Right to Education Act (RTE) which gave a fresh ray of hope among those who could never think of being able to afford decent education for their children.
Sonia Gandhi did her contribution in the field of education also. It was at her initiative, the Centre decided to establish 6,000 model schools with world-class facilities in every backward samithi/mandal. This programme, if effectively used by the states, is going to play a critical role in transforming education.

Most important of all is the Right to Food Ordinance. No one can forget the role played by the Congress President for making Food Security a reality. “No one in the country should live in hunger. That is why the Congress-led Central government is bring the Food Security Bill”, had said Sonia Gandhi on several occasions. For the average Indian politician, many poor in our country go to bed starving.  But it is unfortunate that several political parties — particularly the main Opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)— are shamelessly attacking Sonia Gandhi for formalising this law as an ordinance.

Whether Congress will retain power after 2014 polls or not, these admirable measures taken by the Centre, under the effective guidance of Sonia Gandhi, will ever be remembered by the poor people in our country and remain in the log book of Indian history. Generation after generation, they will remember that it was Sonia Gandhi who recognised their role in food production and gave them the right to food, apart from ensuring several other rights like jobs, education.

Food Security scheme will help the poor; implement it fast; urges Sonia Gandhi to party CMs

NEW DELHI: UPA Chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with the Congress Chief Ministers and state party chiefs on Saturday to discuss about the fast implementation of the Food Security scheme. She asked Congress leaders to roll out the welfare scheme in letter and spirit which the party sees as a game changer in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Sonia Gandhi has been putting her consistent efforts to make the food security programme a reality. She told the Congress CMs that food scheme must be implemented as soon as possible as it helps the poor, women and children. Further it was a promise in the election manifesto of the Congress party during 2009 general polls.

The Congress President held discussions with Congress chief ministers on how to implement the food scheme seeking to provide cheap food-grains to 82 crore people, for which an ordinance was promulgated last week.  The meeting was held at a time when the party is preparing for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.  Congress is hopeful that people would give it another mandate as the Centre has implemented various land mark welfare schemes like MNREGA, direct benefits transfer and Food Security.

Delhi, where assembly polls are due by year-end, will be the first state to launch the scheme on August 20, the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Besides Congress CMs, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party vice president Rahul Gandhi, food minister K V Thomas, AICC general secretaries and Core Group members were present in the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to ensure that the scheme is implemented in the best possible manner with Congress-ruled states becoming role models in implementation of the food security measure.

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme and the Food Security Act are being considered as major legislations by the Congress led UPA-II government at the centre as was the farmers' loan waiver scheme and MNREGA announced in UPA-I.  The loan waiver and MNREGA schemes were credited among other things for return of UPA to power in 2009.