Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday called on President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan to discuss what her party calls ‘growing intolerance’ in the country. The meeting between the Congress chief and the President lasted for over 40 minutes. The party has even planned for a protest march led by Sonia on Tuesday over the issue of intolerance.
The party also hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the anti-Sikh riots issue saying like in 2002 post-Godhra violence, he has “forgotten Rajdharma” in 2015 too as he was an “endorser of intolerance by his studied silence” over acts of hate and violence.
Sonia, who is believed to have raised her concerns about “rising intolerance” in the country during her meet with Mukherjee, will now lead a protest march to Rashtrapati Bhawan accompanied by Congress V-P Rahul Gandhi and senior party members on Tuesday to appeal to Mukherjee to use his constitutional powers to end the “atmosphere of intolerance”.
JDU leader KC Tyagi welcomed Congress chief meeting the President while CPI leader D Raja said it is a fact that there is growing intolerance and the situation is “so worse” that it is agitating the mind of well-meaning citizens.
Congress also accused the Prime Minister of doing “lasting damage” to country’s social fabric by “selective targeting of the minority community”. “The Prime Minister’s statement is politically motivated and mischievous and is only aimed at reopening the wounds after 31 years,” AICC senior spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters after Modi raked up the 1984 anti-Sikh riots issue.
Sharma accused the Prime Minister of raising the issue of ‘84 anti-Sikh riots to “divert attention” from rising concerns over the orchestrated campaign to instill fear and to intimidate. He regretted that the Prime Minister has “chosen not to respond” to concerns of people belonging to cross-sections of society who do not belong to any political party.
“He should act. As Prime Minister of India, he should not be thinking or acting like a BJP leader or a RSS pracharak. He should fulfill his constitutional and moral duty as India’s Prime Minister,” Sharma said.
Noting that Modi invokes former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he said that in 2002 he (Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister) had forgotten Vajpayee’s message of ‘raj dharma’ after the communal riots. “like in 2002, Modi has forgotten raj dharma in 2015,” he said alleging that the Prime Minister is an “endorser of intolerance by his studied silence.”
“The Prime Minister cannot be given the certificate of excellence on this front....He is all-powerful and not that helpless,” Sharma said dismissing as “cosmetic apologies” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s statement on the issue. He said Jaitley is a “very good lawyer but is defending a very poor case of Narendra Modi”.
The Congress leader said that Indira Gandhi’s assassination and the riots that followed it were “definitely tragic and a sad chapter”.