Congress conclave: Goa versus Guwahati

guwahati: "guwahati versus goa", is how assam chief minister, tarun gogoi, compared the ongoing congress chief ministers conclave here with the bjp''s national executive meeting in goa. "but then, we are ahead of the bjp," he added. in his press briefing on friday evening, congress spokesman, jaipal reddy pointed out a minor difference. "the bjp is discussing only politics.but our emphasis is on good governance, development, decentralisation and justice to the weaker sections. there is a stress on transparency, not just to reduce corruption but also to make more information available to the people." on friday, as fourteen congress chief ministers and the party top brass sat down with congress supremo, sonia gandhi, to dwell on these issues at the state-run ashok bramhaputra hotel here, there were speculations whether it was a "report-card" exercise the congressmen were being subjected to. of course, such speculations were natural, given that the chief ministers were all geared up fully for the guwahati conclave. reddy said: "each cm is making a power-point presentation on innovative programmes, which are a distinguishing feature in their particular states. in fact, the structure of this meeting is very much-business like." the congress spokesman also brushed aside such speculations, commenting: "neither will there be any report cards, nor will any marks be given." nevertheless, the chief ministers were kept very busy with three sessions on friday, while another two have been lined up for saturday. presentations on rural development, decentralisation, education, health, weaker sections and poverty alleviation were made by chief ministers of assam, arunachal pradesh, delhi, kerala, madhya pradesh, nagaland, chattisgarh, karnataka, rajasthan and maharashtra throughout the day. at the end of it, an interactive session will be held where the congressmen will exchange opinions and experiences. "our effort is to concentrate on programmes that can be replicated in other states with appropriate regional modifications. we are not content with the fact that our party is winning polls in state after state, rather we want to fulfil expectations aroused among people after our victory." reddy observed, "this is the third such meeting of chief ministers. we have seen that it helps, especially in getting physical targets achieved." assam and the northeast, the congress felt, needs special assistance. "we feel that the special package for the northeast needs to be strengthened", reddy observed. interestingly, the congress itself is holding a massive party event in assam after 26 long years. going down memory lane, chief minister gogoi recalled: "at that time, i was in the youth congress. in fact, ambika soni was then the youth congress president. however, most of the leaders from assam present in that meeting have since passed away." he joked: "only i am alive."