In a stinging attack on the Modi Government, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday accused it of suppressing fundamental freedom and claimed that democracy was going through “one of its darkest hours”.
Presiding over the Congress Working Committee meeting (CWC) here, Rahul alleged that the BJP Government was “obsessed with power and seeking to silence” all those who disagree.
“Hiding behind the cloak of national security, civil society is being intimidated for asking questions on its failures,” the Congress vice-president further alleged in the backdrop of the controversial one-day ban on Hindi channel NDTV India.
“TV channels are being punished and asked to shut down. The Opposition is being arrested for holding the Government to account. Democracy under the present dispensation is going through one of the darkest hours,” he said, adding that all attempts by the Government to suppress fundamental freedom by “abusing” State power would only strengthen the Congress resolve to defeat such “danger designs”.
“Asking questions is what discomforts this Government the most, for they have no answers. We must in every forum, in particular the upcoming session of Parliament, expose the Government's failures,” said the Gandhi scion. The Winter Session of Parliament is set to begin on November 16.
Rahul, who has been persistently raising up the issue of OROP since the past few days, said, “In recent months, our Jawans have suffered the highest casualties in decades. They are being cruelly rewarded by a callous Government with denial of OROP and cut in disability pension.”
During the meeting, which will also strategise the party’s action plan for the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand, the Congress VP said the Modi Government is expected to launch a “disinformation campaign and polarisation to exploit caste and religious issues”.
“They will exploit caste and religious fault lines. We must anticipates and neutralise such devious strategies,” he said.
Rahul sought his party men to continue the “struggle to expose the comprehensive failure of the Modi Government on all fronts”. He said atrocities against Dalits “go unabated” and the rights of Adivasis “continue to be trampled upon”.
“Selectively-chosen corporates are favoured, not the aam admi. Youth, even those who have good education, face the spectre of unemployment. Non-availability of bank credit has choked out small businesses. In the last 20 months, exports have registered negative growth,” he charged.
Rahul maintained farmers’ suicides and agrarian “unrest” have increased to “astonishing levels” and the Government is trying to hide its failures behind numbers that have been widely “doubted and questioned”.
He said the Congress will this year commence the birth centenary celebrations of Indira Gandhi and the main committee and several sub-committee have been constituted for the purpose.
In an all-round castigation of the BJP he said the party-ruled States are actively “diluting and undermining” laws passed by Parliament, he said dubbing them as “another disturbing trend”.
“The Modi Government is lobbying with States via informal channels to deny work under MGNREGA to the very poor. The Government has swung from one extreme to another in dealing with Pakistan and the issues concerning J&K,” he alleged.