The lifestyle of many of our colleagues has been very pompous. They conduct weddings and birthdays in such an ostentatious manner that it pains me a lot. It appears that they are making fun of our commitment to the poor.

The biggest challenge at the national level is to defeat communal forces for which the support of the Left parties was essential but the party is opposed to the Left in Kerala because UDF's aim is to ensure economic development and social harmony.

The future of each of us is inter-connected and all of us should work together by following the path laid down by former leaders of the party for the development of the country and its brighter future.

Returning to power in northern India is very important for the Congress party. No magic wand will work. We have to make our efforts. It will be a long and difficult struggle for us.

An economy growing at 7 percent per year, can and must find the resources to improve the lives of its millions of poor.

To be equitable, economic growth has to be sustainable. To be sustainable, economic growth has in turn to be all-inclusive. All-inclusive is no longer the greatest good of the greatest number. It is actually 'Sarvodaya' or the 'rise of all'. This Mahatma Gandhi saw as essential to Satyagraha itself.

The Maharashtra government is working out a package for the worst-affected villages of the state in the recent floods. But we know whenever such calamities occur; whatever we do is not enough...more has to be done.