Congress mindset remains same even five decades after Emergency: MP

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today hit out at the Congress party for questioning the special intensive revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls, saying the party’s mindset has not changed even five decades after the Emergency.

Lashing out at the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, BJP national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said the comments against the Election Commission of India in connection with the SIR shows that the Gandhis’ mindset has not evolved even 50 years after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposes Emergency in the country.

In Chandigarh to deliver the fourth Balramji Dass Tandon Memorial Lecture on “Why a strong India scares the world” organised by the Panjab University (PU) at Law Auditorium here, Trivedi said, “Indira Gandhi used to say that an election’s validity will be decided by whether she wins the poll. Today, Rahul Gandhi is also saying the same.”

Accusing the INDIA bloc of trying to “rob” Indian democracy on the back of foreign infiltrators during his interaction with the media after the lecture, Trivedi alleged that the INDIA bloc parties win elections where the presence of infiltrators has brought changes in demography. “It is an issue of national security and prestige, but Rahul Gandhi wants to grab power at any cost,” Trivedi said.

Shifting focus onto the party’s strategy for Punjab assembly elections scheduled for 2027, the BJP spokesperson said a positive atmosphere will develop in favour of the saffron party in the coming time. “Punjab has done an experiment, and I feel the state by now must have understood from the experiment that took place in Delhi,” he said.

Ducking the question on the possibility of BJP’s alliance with its old-ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the Punjab Assembly polls, Trivedi said the party leadership takes decisions on such issues.

Earlier, delivering the lecture, the MP said, “The world is watching India’s rise closely, but there is no need for the world to fear us”. Describing him as a “Path Pradarshak Deepak (guiding lamp)”, Trivedi paid tribute to Balramji Dass Tandon for his contributions to the RSS, BJP and the region. Lauding Tandon for his unwavering dedication to public service and organisational discipline, he referred to him as the “foundation stone of the bright building which we are seeing now.”