Congress president Sonia Gandhi continued to launch pointed barbs against the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government on Wednesday by accusing it of engineering communal violence. Sonia said there has been an “alarming increase” in incidents of communal violence since it came to power and asked partymen to resist its “authoritarian and sectarian” tendencies.
“It is our task to play the role of a vigilant Opposition, to stand up for the values and policies of the Congress, and to resist the authoritarian and sectarian tendencies of the new Government as it tries to get its way in Parliament. This we have begun to do, I believe, with increasing effectiveness,” Sonia said addressing the second meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) in the new lok Sabha. She said there have been hundreds of incidents of communal violence and rioting in Uttar Pradesh, in Maharashtra and a number of other States.
Sonia had on Tuesday too at a rally in Kerala said that there has been an increase in communal violence in the country since BJP came to power and alleged this was part of a “deliberate” attempt to divide the people. Earlier, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had also alleged that communal conflicts in UP have been “deliberately engineered”.
In the CPP meeting, Sonia said that it has been a challenging time for the Congress and now the process of rebuilding and restoring the confidence of the public in the Congress has begun.With Congress still not getting the post of leader of Opposition in the lok Sabha apparently weighing on her mind, Sonia said our task is to play the role of vigilant Opposition.
The BJP hit back with Union Minister Prakash Javadekar saying outside Parliament House, “The Congress is levelling completely baseless charges and we completely reject this. They (charges) are politically motivated.”