By IANS,
New Delhi : The Congress Tuesday described its fight with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a clash between “two competing visions” of India — while one “instinctively” unites, the other divides.
The Congress stood for “secular, liberal nationalism”, but the BJP’s “narrow communalism” denied equal rights to large sections of people, the Congress said in its manifesto released by party president Sonia Gandhi at its headquarters here.
The manifesto said the party had always been the “bulwark against the four ‘isms’ that threaten to tear India apart — communalism of all kinds, linguistic chauvinism, regional parochialism and casteism”.
“The BJP practices the politics of divisiveness and discord. Instinctively, the Congress unites, while the BJP divides,” it added.
Though the party suggested that its main contest was with the BJP, it scoffed at the latter’s attempt to position itself as the political rival of the Congress.
“The Congress rejects this presumptuous posturing since the BJP is simply not present in large parts of our country,” the manifesto said.
The document went on to add: “Even so, the contest between the Congress and the BJP is not just a fight between two political parties.”