Congress on Sunday steered clear of the midnight crackdown on Baba Ramdev's hunger strike, but decided to meet the challenge posed by communal forces which have been repeatedly defeated in the elections.
After a lengthy meeting at Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's residence, party General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi sidestepped questions whether the party endorsed the police action last night.
"That has already been explained by the Government," he said to repeated questions on the issue.
"We do not discuss individuals. We do not take note of individuals. The person mentioned is nothing (of no significance) and is supported by other forces," Dwivedi said.
The AICC maintaining virtual silence on the issue was significant given the fact that it had distanced itself from four senior ministers led by Pranab Mukherjee going to the airport on June one to meet Ramdev.
Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who had held negotiations with the yoga guru, was present at the deliberations. Earlier in the day, Sibal had a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as also Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
In an obvious attack on the BJP, Dwivedi said there are certain political and communal forces in the country, who after failing to get popular mandate, try to spread rumours among people to promote themselves.
He said these forces were bent upon shortcircuiting their rise by weakening constitutional and democratic institutions and they do not bother whether the country's democratic structure is damaged.
Dwivedi said these forces after getting defeated in elections wanted to come to power ‘through other means’. The party has felt it seriously and decided to meet the challenge strongly, he added.
"We are going to tell all our units and party workers to carry out a massive public awareness campaign and expose these forces by telling people of their real intentions," he said.
He said the Congress president had discussed in detail the developments over the last few days regarding the hunger strike by Ramdev.
"There are certain forces who do not believe in democratic and constitutional process in the country. They are political forces and communal forces and they join together," Dwivedi said.
A senior leader, who was part of the deliberations, merely said, "We look to the future" when asked whether the party endorsed the police action.
Besides Mukherjee, the leaders present at the meeting were Home Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister A K Antony.
Ahmed Patel, Political secretary to the Congress chief as also party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mukul Wasnik, Birender Singh and Jagdish Tytler also participated in the meeting.
Gandhi's deliberations with senior ministers and leaders came in the wake of several opposition parties, including BJP, condemning the police action at the Ramlila Maidan.
The entire opposition slammed the police action as a ‘shameful’ chapter in India's democracy with BJP accusing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gandhi of ordering the crackdown.
Dwivedi said, "There are certain forces, who do not believe in the constitutional process. There are political forces, there are communal forces and they have joined hands with other forces who want to create anarchy. This has not happened for the first time. It has happened in past also.”
"When they were weakened, they were rejected by people and defeated in elections, they chose the other path to increase their influence and come to power. They have done this in past as well and they have once again come together."
He said that these forces ‘after failing to get peoples' support in election try to increase their influence by spreading rumours among people through other means ... they want to make a shortcut route.’
He said that these forces don’t bother about the long-term losses to the country and people's interest and want to use other forces for their selfish gains. Dwivedi said Congress has decided to launch a massive public campaign to expose the designs of such people and also highlight the achievements of the UPA government at the Centre and ideology of Congress.