In an unrelenting attack on the Opposition parties on the “sanatan” controversy, BJP chief JP Nadda on Thursday alleged that its INDIA alliance was engaging in just two things – bashing the “Sanatan” culture and "bullying" the media and sought it to shift to doing “constructive work” lest they get further marginalized politically .
"The Emergency era mindset is alive among these parties," he charged in a post on “X”.
"I.N.D.I.A Alliance should stop their antics immediately. They should instead focus on constructive work and serving people. Else, the path to obscurity will get even clearer."
Nadda's remarks came a day after Congress general secretary KC Venugopal told reporters that the coordination committee of the INDIA bloc authorised the sub-group on media to decide upon the names of the anchors on whose shows none of the opposition alliance members will send their representatives.
"These days, the I.N.D.I.A Alliance is only doing two things. Bashing Sanatan Sanskriti (culture) and bullying the media," the BJP chief alleged, adding that each party in the opposition alliance is competing to outdo the other in hurling the "choicest abuses" towards Sanatan Sanskriti.
"Bullying the media -- filing FIRs, threatening individual journalists, making lists in true Nazi style of who to target," he added.
The BJP chief claimed the history of the Congress has "many instances" of bullying the media and silencing those with differing views.
"Pandit Nehru curtailed free speech and arrested those who criticised him. Indira Ji remains the Gold Medal winner of how to do it -- called for committed judiciary, committed bureaucracy and imposed the horrific Emergency," he charged. "Rajiv Ji tried to bring the media under state control but failed miserably," he alleged, adding that the "Sonia (Gandhi)-led UPA" was banning social media handles "simply because the Congress did not like their views".
The BJP also said it has become the opposition's habit to seek political mileage from every incident as it hit back at rivals criticising its felicitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the success of the G20 summit amid reports of security officials' death in a gunfight in Kashmir.
"Seeking political mileage from everything has become a habit of the opposition," BJP general secretary Tarun Chugh, who is his party's in-charge for Jammu and Kashmir, said in reply to a question about the opposition's claim.
Paying tributes to an Army colonel, a major and a deputy superintendent of police, who made the supreme sacrifice in a gunfight with terrorists, Chugh said the killers will not be spared.
Several INDIA bloc parties have slammed the BJP for holding "celebrations" to mark the success of the G20 Summit on a day security personnel were killed by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir, with the Congress saying that no matter what happens, Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot postpone receiving accolades.