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Fakir Chand in Bangalore
Virtually turning its back on the famous Pachmarhi Declaration of 1998, the Congress on Saturday declared its willingness to enter into "appropriate" electoral or coalition arrangements with "secular" parties on the basis of mutual understanding, without compromising its basic ideology.
The party's political resolution, moved by working committee member Arjun Singh at the 81st plenary session of the All-India Congress Committee, acknowledged that the present political scenario calls for such electoral alliances or coalitions to drive "communal forces" out of power.
"The Congress would like to clarify through this political resolution that the Pachmarhi Declaration did recognise that there would be circumstances in which coalitions might be formed on the basis of agreed programmes," the statement said.
The resolution, however, ruled out any understanding with communal forces like the Bharatiya Janata Party or any party consorting with such communal forces.
"The political priority is to forestall the BJP from pursuing its ulterior motive of pushing forward its communal agenda."
Claiming that there has been some misinterpretation of its Pachmarhi stand on joining other national or regional parties in forming electoral alliances or coalition governments, the party resolved that it would play a pro-active role in restoring secular governance in the country.
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