Emergency, '84 riots, dynastic politics: Modi targets Congress in Parliament for 2nd day

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 8

Launching a scathing attack on Opposition Congress in the Rajya Sabha today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said had the party not been there, the country would have been spared of Emergency, massacre of Sikhs and the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.

Also read: Just Congress-bashing, nothing on key issues: Rahul Gandhi

All-out attack

Had the Cong not been there, corruption and casteism wouldn’t have been as deep.... Cong govt sacked Lata Mangeshkar’s brother Hridaynath from All India Radio for poetry on Veer Savarkar. Lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri was jailed for criticising Nehru. — Narendra Modi, PM

Kharge responds to PM’s ‘tukde tukde’ dig

• On PM’s charge that the Congress was leading the ‘tukde tukde’ gang, Mallikarjun Kharge said: “We liberated Bangladesh by separating it from Pakistan.”
• Regarding remarks that Mahatma Gandhi wanted the Congress dismantled, Kharge said: “Those who idolise Nathuram Godse should not speak of Bapu.”

PM forced walkout

Even by his pathetic standards of decency, dignity, sobriety of language and fidelity to facts, the PM plumbed new depths in the Rajya Sabha today, forcing an Opposition walkout. — Jairam Ramesh, Congress MP

Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s Address during the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament, PM Modi claimed the Congress was in the “grip of urban Naxalites”.

Amid cheers from treasury benches, he said, “Had the Congress been dismantled as per Mahatma Gandhi’s wishes, India would have been free of dynastic politics and the blot of Emergency wouldn’t have been there. Corruption, casteism and regionalism wouldn’t have been as deep.... Sikhs would not have been massacred, Punjab wouldn’t have burnt, Kashmiri Hindus wouldn’t have had to leave their state, daughters wouldn’t have been torched in tandoors and the common man wouldn’t have had to wait for years for basic amenities.” As the Congress staged a walkout, the PM said one who spoke had to listen too in a democracy and that the party was used only to preaching.

On accusations of altering history, the PM said he was only refreshing the memory of some whose “histories began only 50 years ago and were confined to a particular family”. He said Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, “concerned about his global image”, refused to send the Army to help Ram Manohar Lohia-led “satyagrahis” who were working for the liberation of Goa. This, he maintained, “delayed” the state’s independence by 15 years.

The PM also listed instances of past Congress governments allegedly muzzling the freedom of expression and cited Lata Mangeshkar’s musician brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar being sacked from All India Radio for presenting poetry on Veer Savarkar. Lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri, he claimed, was jailed for criticising Nehru.

Hitting back, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted, “True to his character, the PM falsified history yet again today. He claimed that Majrooh Sultanpuri was jailed in 1949 for attacking Nehru. Majrooh ‘saab’ was, in fact, imprisoned with other Communists that year as the CPI had announced a revolution against the Indian Government.”

Referring to Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge, Modi said, “I was surprised when he asked what would have happened had the Congress not been there... This democracy is not courtesy your patronage.” He said when a family was supreme in any party, talent became the first casualty.

Without naming Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who recently said the Constitution mentioned “India as a Union of States and not a nation”, Modi said if the Congress felt the conceptualisation of the nation was unconstitutional, it should change its name from Indian National Congress to ‘Federation of Congress’.

The PM had similarly targeted the Congress in the Lok Sabha yesterday.

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