Advocating vigilance against rising communalism, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday accused the Modi Government of not only “stealing’’ the ideas of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government but also carrying forward Congress policies that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had “hypocritically’’ obstructed in the past.
Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party ahead of the close of the Budget Session of Parliament, Ms. Gandhi urged party legislators not be demoralised by the manner in which the Modi Government was blaming the UPA “for their own failures’’ and added that “such excuses have a short shelf life’’.
On communalism, she pointed out that there has been an “alarming increase’’ in the number of incidents of communal violence and “other subtle but pernicious signals of intolerance’’ besides an apprehension that the BJP and its sister organisations want to divide the country along sectarian lines.
Dwelling on the Government’s policies and programmes, Ms. Gandhi said: “The Government has introduced and passed a Budget that breaks little or no new ground. They have paid us the tribute of imitating and extending, if not strengthening, a number of Congress programmes and initiatives that they had vehemently attacked when they were in Opposition.’’
Of the view that the BJP has nothing new to offer the country, Ms. Gandhi added: “They are welcome to steal our ideas. They are welcome to borrow our programmes. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.’’ The Modi Government had “now seen the wisdom of our government’s initiative in trying to reach a land boundary agreement with Bangladesh’’ which they had opposed last year, she underscored.
“The new government now supports the proposed Goods and Services Tax, sugar subsidies, railway and diesel price hikes, FDI in insurance, the Aadhaar scheme, and other key UPA budget measures, all of which they had bitterly – and, if I might add, hypocritically — denounced, obstructed and prevented progress on when they were where we are today.’’
Accusing the Government of attacking the UPA “without principles’’ and “now governing us without policies’’, Ms. Gandhi also expressed satisfaction in the manner in which the party had conducted itself in Parliament.
