Atmosphere of "fear and foreboding" under Modi: Sonia

A combative Congress President Sonia Gandhi today attacked the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of engaging in a "dangerous duplicitous game" by allowing his colleagues to create an atmosphere of "fear and foreboding" by fomenting "communal polarisation".

She also charged the government with making "systematic attempts" to dismantle edifice of the welfare state and asked partymen to "strongly oppose" its moves on the land bill and food security law.

"One one hand, the Prime Minister wants to project himself as the great champion of good governance and Constitutional values while on the other he allows many of his colleagues to make vile statements and foment communal polarisation.

"This has already damaged our secular fabric. An atmosphere of fear and foreboding has been deliberately created," she said in her inaugural address to a day-long conference of Congress chief ministers, the first after the party's worst debacle in lok Sabha polls last year.

"There is another aspect of both substance and style that I should mention and this relates to a dangerous duplicitous game that is being played out.

 "In terms of substance, there are systematic attempts being made to dismantle the edifice of the welfare state built up over the decades by successive Congress governments", she said.