Opinion | How PM Modi took Congress to task in Parliament
In his stinging and no-holds-barred attacks on the Congress Party in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on Monday and Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Grand Old Party of sowing seeds of separatism and perpetuating dynastic politics. “Had there been no Congress, the massacre of Sikhs, the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, the proclamation of Emergency would not have happened”, he told the Upper House.
Modi recalled how the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh T. Anjaiah was sacked when the son of the Prime Minister did not like his reception arrangements at the airport. He also recalled how the chief minister of Karnataka Veerendra Patil was sacked when he was suffering from illness. The Prime Minister hit out at the Gandhi family, and said, “some people seem to believe that India took birth in 1947. They believe only one family can rule this country. Now, dynastic politics is being followed by several political parties. I would appeal to all parties to allow inner-party democracy and abstain from dynastic politics.”
In Lok Sabha, Modi accused the Grand Old Party of following the British policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ and said, “it has now become the leader of tukde-tukde gang”. He accused the party of sowing seeds of separatism by harping on the theme that ‘India is a union of states, and not a nation’. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had, in his speech, alleged that southern states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala were being ignored by the Centre.
Modi said, “I salute lakhs of people of Tamil Nadu who came to the streets to offer their last respects to Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, when his mortal remains were being taken to the airport. People were chanting slogans like “Veer Vanakkam” (Welcome, warrior). This is my country, but Congress has been hating such things. Divisive mentality (vibhaajankari mansikta) has entered their DNA. The Britishers have left but their “divide and rule” mentality has entered the character of Congress. Congress today, has become the leader of ‘tukde-tukde’ gang.”
The Prime Minister objected to Rahul Gandhi questioning India’s status as a nation. Rahul Gandhi had claimed that nowhere in the Constitution has India been described as a nation, it has been described as a union of states. Modi, in Rajya Sabha, read out experts from Dr B R Ambedkar’s speech to say that India may have been divided into states for administrative purposes, but in reality, India is one country. In Lok Sabha, Modi referred to the Vishnu Puran and Jawaharlal Nehru’s book ‘Discovery of India’ to make the point that the idea of India as a nation had been there for centuries, much before our Constitution was drafted. In Rajya Sabha, Modi asked why the Congress is named ‘Indian National Congress’. “If India is not a nation, let the Congress remove the word ‘national’, and rename itself as a Federation of Congress”, he said.
In Lok Sabha, Modi said, “whatever may be the gameplan (of Congress), many have come and gone. There were many, many attempts to divide this nation, but our nation is immortal and perpetual. Nobody can break our nation. Those who tried it had to lose. This country was one, was great, this country is one, is great, and this country will remain one and will remain great”, Modi said.
The prime minister said it seems that Congress has made up its mind not to return to power for the next 100 years. He reminded how Congress lost many states since the last 15 to 30 years after electoral drubbing. “In Nagaland, the voters last voted for Congress in 1998, and now 24 years have passed. The voters of Odisha last voted for Congress in 1995, and 27 years have passed. You secured the majority in Goa in 1994, and for the last 28 years, voters of Goa have not accepted you. The last Congress won in Tripura was in the year 1988, 34 years have passed. The last time UP, Bihar and Gujarat voters voted you to power was in the year 1985, since then 37 years have passed. The people of Bengal voted you to power the last time in 1972, more than 50 years have passed. The voters of Tamil Nadu voted Congress to power the last time in 1962, sixty years have passed. Your party takes the credit for creating Telangana, but the people did not accept you. Jharkhand was created 20 years ago, but the voters did not accept you. You came to power through the backdoor. The question is not of election results. The issue is about your intentions, your ‘nekdili’ (good sense). You should find out why people in states are rejecting you for decades and are not allowing your party to come to power. If we lose one election, we think about it for months. But in your case, your ego comes in the way, and your party eco-system does not allow you to dispense with your ego.”
Modi hit out at the Congress and opposition leaders for denouncing entrepreneurs. It was Rahul Gandhi who described two top industrialists, without naming them, as “AA variant”. Modi said, “on one hand, our young entrepreneurs are now in Top Three across the world, and their unicorns are making a splash, and on the other hand, there is the tendency to denigrate our entrepreneurs and job creators. They feel nice by striking fear in the hearts of entrepreneurs. There are people sitting in Congress who are describing our entrepreneurs as coronavirus variants. What are you doing? You are harming the Congress party."
The Prime Minister also alleged that “it was the Congress which, instead of appealing to people to remain indoors, egged on poor people living in Mumbai to go to railway stations and take the trains to their home states. They even bought tickets for them. Similarly, in Delhi, the party in power took out jeeps, fitted with mikes, appealing to poor people to pack up their belongings and leave for UP and Bihar. They even provided buses and dropped them at the UP border.”
Prime Minister Modi’s speeches in both houses of Parliament remind us of his old image when he used to tear his rivals to bits, by placing facts and figures, embellished with stinging remarks. He quoted Jawaharlal Nehru several times in his speech. Modi wanted to convey this message that Congress is indulging in blind opposition to anything that the Prime Minister does.
By referring to how the Congress leaders behaved during the Covid pandemic, Modi described how despite strong opposition to lockdowns and vaccines, the nation came out with flying colors by tackling the pandemic. “We did not allow anyone to starve. We did not allow our supply chains to break. Today 80 per cent of Indians have taken both their vaccine doses. We focused on MSMEs and agriculture, and did not allow our farmers to lose during the pandemic”, Modi said. The Congress is yet to learn from its past and present mistakes.
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