The NDA government should not mistake its parliamentary majority “for a licence to impose its narrow ideology on people,” Congress president Sonia Gandhi said on Wednesday even as she accused it of “destabilising institutions” and “polarising society.”
From the government’s “ill-prepared policy on the NSG membership” to picking holes in the latter’s claims of economic growth, she left no subject untouched, except the contentious GST Bill, on which differences appear to be narrowing.
Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party’s first meeting in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament, Ms. Gandhi mounted a sharp attack on the ruling dispensation, slamming it for “deception,” “glib marketing slogans” and snatching the rights of Dalits and Adivasis.
Citing the incident in Gujarat in which four Dalits were beaten and humiliated publicly, she said it was “just one example of the social terror this government condones.”
Attacking the government for imposing President’s rule in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the Congress president said, “On the one hand, the Prime Minister claims the Constitution to be sacred for his government. On the other, he has no compunction in trampling upon it, first in Arunachal Pradesh and then in Uttarakhand.”
“Fortunately, an independent and fearless judiciary has reminded him about constitutional norms and values,” she said, stressing that “we cannot afford to be complacent since similar tactics are still being attempted in other Congress-ruled States.” In the last few months, she continued, “The government’s project of destabilising institutions and polarising our society has played out with renewed vigour to the detriment of constitutional values … The government seems to have forgotten that parliamentary majority can never be the reason to abandon the principles and practice of constitutionalism.”
She even referred to the recent Rajya Sabha elections in Haryana, where “in a never-before act, pens in a polling booth were mysteriously replaced.”
Referring to the turmoil in the Kashmir Valley, she said, “There can be no compromise on national security. Militants must be dealt with firmly. Yet we must ask ourselves what has driven people to violence. The party’s position is clear: while borders cannot be redrawn, much can and must be done within the framework of the Constitution.”
Lauding the UPA’s role in handling issues related to Kashmir, she continued: “Dr. Manmohan Singh’s government had done a tremendous amount of good work, along with a serious effort to open and sustain a dialogue. Sadly, this is no longer the case.”
Questioning the PM’s foreign policy, she said, “How does the Modi government explain the incoherence of its foreign policy despite the PM’s frequent travels abroad, his equally frequent embraces of world leaders and impromptu birthday calls! Its policy towards Pakistan oscillates between one extreme to the other.”
The BJP, she said, had blocked every important FDI initiative of the UPA government: “Yet, now, it has put in place a free for all policy even in a sensitive area like defence.”
“The opaqueness of the Modi government in decision-making and brazen promotion of cronyism has cast a dark shadow on its integrity,” she said, questioning the government’s record on job creation, exports and prices.
The Congress, she said, may lack in numbers “but we will make up for it with our work and continue to demand accountability through Parliament.”
She also focussed on the scams in BJP-ruled States: “What happened to the scandals that have been exposed and are sought to be buried in BJP-run States like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and in PM’s own State of Gujarat?”
