Asking NDA MPs to brace for “the undemocratic challenge” of the Congress party whose “disruption” of Parliament he equated with the Emergency, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday directed them to reach out to the people across the country to “expose” the main Opposition party’s “sinister” design to save one family and stop the growth of the country.
“Congress party wants to save the family, while the BJP wants to save the country as it is our principle,” Prime Minister said, addressing a meeting of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Parliamentary Party.
“We accept this undemocratic challenge by the Congress and will take it to the people. Our people will go to every nook and corner to expose the Congress, which is trying to stop the growth of the country,” Modi said soon after Parliament was adjourned sine die without transacting any substantial business.
The NDA MPs and Ministers will hold protests across the country, especially targeting constituencies of 44 Congress MPs and nine of the left parties (who disrupted proceedings in the two Houses) during a month-long campaign.
The meeting also passed a resolution against the “deliberate and forcible” disruption of the Monsoon Session of Parliament by the Congress and called upon the people to see through “patently undemocratic” behaviour of the Congress. later, the NDA leaders took out a “Save Democracy March” from Vijay Chowk to Mahatma Gandhi’s statue on Parliament premises.
In his 25-minute speech, Modi reaffirmed his Government’s commitment to the welfare of the poor and deprived sections, and said the Congress was “rattled” by rapid development taking place.
He asserted the main Opposition party’s bid to stall the initiatives will not be allowed. The Prime Minister also said the Government was trying to resolve all pending disputes one after the other and highlighted the Naga peace accord and the land boundary pact with Bangladesh.
Modi recalled his days as a political worker during the Jayaprakash Narayan Movement when Emergency was imposed in an attempt to concentrate power with one family, and claimed the current situation was akin to that.
BJP squarely blamed the Congress for the disruption of the Monsoon Session because it was “enslaved” to the Gandhi family and announced that it will launch a campaign against the party in all its 44 lok Sabha constituencies for paralysing Parliament “without” a cause.
Senior BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched a sharp attack on the Congress top brass, saying they cannot accept power and authority going outside their family and dubbed as a “new low” the sight of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi rushing to the Well of the lok Sabha on Wednesday.
“The Congress has exhibited that it continues to be enslaved to a family. It is willing to compromise national interest and policy merely because the family is unable to digest its electoral defeat in 2014. There is popular disapproval of its policies of disruption without a cause,” Jaitley told a press conference.
He also ridiculed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi over his “rent a cause” approach, saying “he cannot make a distinction between parliamentary speech and sloganeering and the more he grows old, the more he is immature”