Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday ripped into the Narendra Modi government, saying it was using development as a buzzword to mask its communal agenda and people were being viciously attacked for holding different beliefs in the “prevalent atmosphere of intolerance”.
Speaking at the culmination of the year-long 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Jawaharlal Nehru, Ms. Gandhi said the first Prime Minister believed in a frank exchange of ideas when any citizen could speak his ‘Mann ki Baat’, which has now been “reduced” to a radio broadcast.
“In a day and age where people are viciously attacked for holding different beliefs, it is important to remember this.
Simply because someone holds a different view or disagrees then they cannot be branded a traitor. This is neither the way of our democracy nor a form of patriotism. It is a form of tyranny.
“Today, we are witnessing attempts by certain individuals and elements to whitewash their communal agenda in front of the world by hiding it behind the mask of development.
Development is used as a buzzword, again and again,” she said.
Ms. Gandhi noted that Nehru as the first Sahitya Academy president had said that his first duty was to protect it from the interference of the Prime Minister.
“He (Nehru) did this with the objective of fostering a love for art and human values, to help carry out research and propagate a scientific temper, to preserve our culture and diverse ethos. But today these institutions are reduced to a joke. But who will protect the academies and institutions of today?” she said.
“Prime Minister is silent when Dalit children are killed in Haryana or when someone is killed in the name of religion in Dadri,” Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there are some forces in the country, which want to spread confusion about Nehru’s role in building new India.
“They will not succeed. For some time again, some communal forces are out to pit one community against the other. If these forces succeed, there will be a threat to the unity integrity of the nation and its democracy,” he said.
