For the second day in a row, Prime Minister Narendra Modi mounted a blistering attack on the Opposition which has been raising the Adani-Hindenburg issue in Parliament, stressing that their criticism will only help the BJP flourish further. The PM’s over 90-minute speech in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday was sprinkled with jibes on the Congress leadership, needling them for not affixing the “great surname Nehru”, recalling that the late PM Indira Gandhi had used Article 356 to dismiss State governments “50 times” and attaching the Gandhi-Nehru name to over 600 government schemes.
Amid unrelenting opposition chants targeting him over the Adani Group and raising slogans of “Modi-Adani bhai bhai”, Modi in the Rajya Sabha lashed out at the Congress and accused the grand old party of slowing India’s progress by resorting to tokenism towards development and wasting six decades of the country. He asserted that his government has over the last nine years through prudent economic policies ensured country’s all round progress and overall development, much better than what was achieved during Congress rule of six decades.
“I want to tell the opposition MPs, the more you throw keechad (mud), the better the lotus will bloom”, Modi said in the Rajya Sabha while participating in the discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address.
Regional aspirations
Modi highlighted how his government had in the last eight years delivered huge progress for the nation while also taking care of the regional aspirations. Modi unleashed a scathing attack on the Opposition (mainly Congress) for not being bothered about the country, but only about politics.
Taking a jibe at Congress, PM Modi said in the upper house that when he took over as the Prime Minister in 2014, he saw that the Congress had created problems and issues everywhere for India’s overall development.
“More than half of the population was without banking facilities till 2014, now 48 crore accounts opened in last 9 nine years. Our government has extended potable water supply to 11 crore houses in last 3-4 years against only 3 crore pre-2014”, he said.
Modi said the Congress slowed the country’s development and India lost six decades while smaller countries progressed. He noted that the Congress never tried to find permanent solutions to the problems confronting the country.
“Congress used to say ‘Gareebi Hatao’ but did nothing for over four decades. While we work hard to meet the expectations and aspirations of the people of the country”, Modi said.
“We do not believe in tokenism, we are working hard to take the country forward through science and technology. The country is with us, people have rejected the Congress party and punished them from time to time. However, the Congress and their allies fail to learn from these failures of theirs”, he said.
Misuse of Article 356
Modi accused the Congress governments of misusing Article 356 of the Constitution by dismissing 90 State governments.
“Which party and people in power misused Article 356? Elected governments (at States) were toppled 90 times, who were those who did that? A Prime Minister used Article 356 as many as 50 times and the name is Indira Gandhi. In Kerala, a communist government was elected which wasn’t liked by Pandit Nehru and was toppled”, he said.
Vote bank politics
Modi asserted that his government does not do politics of profit and loss or appeasement. “Congress party’s economic, social and political policies were based on vote bank politics. For decades, our tribals were deprived of development, and they lost trust in the government. Congress government did not work with good intentions for the development of the tribals”, he said.
Modi also lashed out at Opposition MPs raising slogans in Parliament and said the behaviour of some MPs has been disappointing.
“The country carefully hears what is said in this House. Some MPs are bringing disrepute to this House. Language, behaviour of some in the House is disappointing for India”, he said.
Nehru surname
Modi took a dig at the Gandhis and questioned as to why the family shies away from using ‘Nehru’ as surname.
“Some had problems with names of schemes of government and Sanskrit words in the names. I read in a media report that 600 government schemes were in the Gandhi-Nehru family’s name. I don’t understand why people from their generation don’t keep Nehru as their surname, what’s the fear and shame”, Modi asked.