BJP on Saturday lashed out at Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi for her remarks against it and the Modi Government, asking her to remove “Italian lenses” to see India’s all-round progress in the past 12 years. The party also decried Sonia for “justifying” the imposition of Emergency on June 25, 1975, saying “her PR exercise cannot hide the truth”, as described Gandhi’s memoir as a “bundle of dishonesty with more political rhetoric”.
Senior BJP leader Tarun Chugh, while reacting to the former Congress chief’s remarks ahead of the release of her memoirs, alleged that the Congress’ history has been one of dividing the country for decades through caste, religion and vote-bank politics, and asked her to write about the various scams under her party’s rule, the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and the Bhopal gas tragedy.
“Great damage” has been done over the last 12 years to the fabric of India, democracy and institutions, Gandhi has alleged, asserting that even after the Modi Government goes, it will take time to restore the country’s systems to health.
In an interview ahead of the launch of her book, ‘Belonging: A Journey of Love’, Sonia also pointed out that people are now becoming restless and recognising the damage.
Reacting sharply to Sonia Gandhi’s remarks, the BJP stated: “If you take off your Italian lenses, you will see India clearly: Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Prayas, and India rising as a global power at a 7.8 per cent (GDP) growth rate.”
“A new tide of faith is sweeping among the citizens across the nation today, but you cannot digest it,” the BJP Rajya Sabha MP added. Chugh also reminded Gandhi of various “scams” that surfaced during the Congress rule and asked her to write about them as well.
“Write the book by all means, but explain why you had tears in your eyes and cried all night when a terrorist was killed in the Batla House encounter? The nation wants to know why, to this day, you did not utter a single word on the martyrdom of Indian soldiers,” the BJP leader said.
Chugh also asked Sonia to write about the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, mentioning how Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi responded to the large-scale violence against the Sikh community, saying, “Ek bada ped girta hai to dharti hilti gai. (‘When a big tree falls, the earth shakes’).
Weighing in on the Emergency, Sonia Gandhi said in the interview that it was done constitutionally. “It was only after the Emergency that I came to know the true gravity of what had been happening. Yes, democratic rights had been curtailed, and there was a suspension of habeas corpus, but it was done constitutionally,” the former Congress chief said.
Former Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi described Sonia Gandhi’s memoir as a “bundle of dishonesty with more political rhetoric” and said it appears to be a compilation of the Congress party’s old resolutions from the past 20-30 years.