Inaugurating the two-day convention of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) at the Maratha Vidhya Prasarak Samaj campus, Pawar criticised the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre and the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the State for both failing to keep their promises and spreading communal hatred.``The Congress should launch an aggressive campaign against fascist forces,'' he said, adding, ``even if Maharashtra burns.'' The sarcasm against Sena chief Bal Thackeray was unmistakable.He said Congress President Sonia Gandhi would soon undertake a whirlwind tour of various states to rejuvenate the fighting spirit among party workers. While the Congress is strong in Maharashtra, AndhraPradesh, Rajasthan and Assam, it needs to be strengthened in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab (where it failed to win a single seat in the general election), West Bengal (it bagged just one seat) and Bihar (it won only five seats).

While defeat is not new to the Congress, the party has never before succumbed to communal forces, which have spread to vital areas like education and trade unions.Pawar said he thought he was running the largest educational institution, the Rayat Shikshan Sanstha, till he learnt that the Saraswati Shikshan Sanstha (a Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh outfit), had about 12 lakh students on its rolls.Teachers in schools run by the Saraswati Shikshan Sanstha are trained RSS men, who are polluting the minds of the younger generation by spreading communal hatred. These persons pose a new threat to soceity, he alleged.Institutions like the RSS, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram and Bharatiya Mazoor Sangh had percolated into vital government departments like theInformation and Broadcasting Ministry and the Human Resources Development Ministry, Pawar said.He claimed that during the BJP's rule in Madhya Pradesh, the contents of school textbooks were changed, with lessons on Mahatma Gandhi being replaced by those on Swatantryaveer Savarkar and Keshavrao Hedgewar. The saffron brigade is using its propaganda machinery to create a Hindu-Muslim divide and is whipping us resentment for Dalits, Pawar alleged.Referring to the Vajpayee government's move to review the Constitution, Pawar charged the government with trying to change the basic structure of the Constitution. The persons on the review committee are known for their views against parliamentary democracy, he alleged.Exhorting party workers to bury their ego problems, he urged them to start working from every bylane in the proposed offensive against fascist forces. Though the Congress won 37 seats in Maharashtra in the recent general election, he warned against becoming complacent. In the 1995 Assembly polls, at least48 Congress candidates had won by narrow margins but things could swing the other way if party workers are overconfident, he said.Attention must be paid to Assembly constituencies in Mumbai and the Konkan region, he said, adding that in 12 constituencies in Vidarbha, 10 in Konkan and Mumbai, and eight in North Maharashtra, the party's MLAs are on slippery ground, surviving on wafer-thin margins.The Manohar Joshi government has plunged the State into bankruptcy over the last three years and the Shiv Sena, in particular, has become more offensive on various issues. It has returned to its old identity of aggressive Hinduism, convinced that the party will not win enough seats in the next elections, he said.The Sena's stand on delaying the Srikrishna Commission report, the hooliganism at Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali's concert in Mumbai as well as artist M F Hussain's house indicated that the party wants to consolidate its strength among Hindus, Pawar said.The unprecedented suicides by 26 farmers in Maharashtraspeak volumes for the concern of the Joshi government for the farming community, he added.In keeping with the party's concern for Dalits, adivasis and women, posts would be reserved for them at various levels, including a 33 per cent quota for women in the Congress hierarchy. MPCC President, Ranjit Deshmukh, also blasted the Manohar Joshi government and called for a `Jan Andolan' against it at all levels.