NEW DELHI: Congress president Sonia Gandhi danced away doubts about her medical condition when she joined tribal members of the party's women's wing in an energetic jig on Friday.
Sonia surprised many when she, after finishing her speech, came down from the stage to mingle with the tribal women and soon matched them step by step to foot-tapping folk tunes.
The energy shown by Sonia, who turned 66 last week, was enough to dispel doubts about her recovery from the undisclosed ailment for which she was treated overseas in August. Although she initially seemed weak and was forced to skip the inauguration of a rail project in Uttarakhand, Sonia has lately increased her public appearances.
Earlier this month, she spent an entire day, packed with back-to back engagements, in Manipur, while on Saturday, she is travelling to Goa for a political rally.
The increasing public engagements make it certain that she will campaign in the coming assembly elections, including in Uttar Pradesh where Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is engaged in a high-wattage campaign to regain the party's political turf.
Minutes before joining in the impromptu dance, Sonia advocated a developmental approach to fight Naxalism and bring the ultras back into the national mainstream. "We all know there is left-wing extremism in a number of districts with sizeable tribal population. We can defeat it by better implementation of rural development programmes," she said.
The UPA chairperson asked the Centre and states to address the issue seriously, saying it was their fundamental and constitutional obligation to ensure development of tribal areas. "I feel that if we do that, then those who have adopted the path of violence today, we will be able to bring them to the democratic mainstream," she said, addressing a convention on 'Empowerment of Tribal Women in India' organised by All India Mahila Congress.
Sonia asked workers of the party's women's wing in tribal areas to inform people at the grassroots about UPA's flagship programmes, urging them to agitate if these schemes were not being implemented in their states. "Wherever these programmes are not being implemented, they should agitate," she said.
The Congress chief also said minerals in tribal areas should be used with care. "Tribal areas are rich in minerals. But these resources should be used in a manner that does not destroy land belonging to tribals and does not snatch away their livelihood. Our central government is making such a law which will allow development of mineral resources and give its benefits to tribal communities and primacy to youth in employment," she added.
Sonia said the question now was not of protecting and conserving age-old tribal traditions that had enriched society but of giving these communities new avenues of growth and development. She said Forest Rights Act passed by the UPA government in 2006 had given legal recognition to the rights of traditional forest dwelling communities.
Sonia surprised many when she, after finishing her speech, came down from the stage to mingle with the tribal women and soon matched them step by step to foot-tapping folk tunes.
The energy shown by Sonia, who turned 66 last week, was enough to dispel doubts about her recovery from the undisclosed ailment for which she was treated overseas in August. Although she initially seemed weak and was forced to skip the inauguration of a rail project in Uttarakhand, Sonia has lately increased her public appearances.
Earlier this month, she spent an entire day, packed with back-to back engagements, in Manipur, while on Saturday, she is travelling to Goa for a political rally.
The increasing public engagements make it certain that she will campaign in the coming assembly elections, including in Uttar Pradesh where Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi is engaged in a high-wattage campaign to regain the party's political turf.
Minutes before joining in the impromptu dance, Sonia advocated a developmental approach to fight Naxalism and bring the ultras back into the national mainstream. "We all know there is left-wing extremism in a number of districts with sizeable tribal population. We can defeat it by better implementation of rural development programmes," she said.
The UPA chairperson asked the Centre and states to address the issue seriously, saying it was their fundamental and constitutional obligation to ensure development of tribal areas. "I feel that if we do that, then those who have adopted the path of violence today, we will be able to bring them to the democratic mainstream," she said, addressing a convention on 'Empowerment of Tribal Women in India' organised by All India Mahila Congress.
Sonia asked workers of the party's women's wing in tribal areas to inform people at the grassroots about UPA's flagship programmes, urging them to agitate if these schemes were not being implemented in their states. "Wherever these programmes are not being implemented, they should agitate," she said.
The Congress chief also said minerals in tribal areas should be used with care. "Tribal areas are rich in minerals. But these resources should be used in a manner that does not destroy land belonging to tribals and does not snatch away their livelihood. Our central government is making such a law which will allow development of mineral resources and give its benefits to tribal communities and primacy to youth in employment," she added.
Sonia said the question now was not of protecting and conserving age-old tribal traditions that had enriched society but of giving these communities new avenues of growth and development. She said Forest Rights Act passed by the UPA government in 2006 had given legal recognition to the rights of traditional forest dwelling communities.
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