PM: No Emergency, massacre of Sikhs if Cong was not there
New Delhi: Declaring that even Mahatma Gandhi wanted the party dismantled, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said there would have no Emergency, no massacre of Sikhs, no caste politics and no exodus of Pandits from Kashmir had the Congress not been there. Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the president's address in the Rajya Sabha, the prime minister, who also highlighted his government's achievements, launched a blistering attack against the Congress and alleged that urban Naxals had control over the party.
"The Congress in a way is in the grip of urban Naxals. That is why its thought has become negative," Modi alleged in his 90-minute speech.
"Mahatma Gandhi wanted the dismantling of the Congress because he knew what's going to happen. Had the Congress not been there as Mahatma Gandhi had wished, what would have happened:
Democracy would have been free of dynasty; India would have been spared of the blot of Emergency; corruption would not have been institutionalized; the abyss of casteism and regionalism would not have been so deep," Modi said in his scathing anti-Congress speech amid cheers from the treasury benches.
The Rajya Sabha adopted the motion of thanks after negating all amendments moved by opposition members.
The Congress staged a walkout from the House during the prime minister's address, prompting Modi to say that one needs to listen too in a democracy and that the party was used to only preaching to others till now.
If Congress was not there, Sikhs would not have been massacred, Punjab would not have burnt in the fire of terrorism, Kashmiri Hindus would not have had to leave their state, daughters would have been torched in tandoors and common man would not have had to wait for years to get basic amenities like water, power, toilets and roads," he said continuing his offensive against the opposition party, a day after a similar attack in the Lok Sabha.
The prime minister rejected accusations of altering history and said he was only refreshing the memory of some whose histories began only 50 years ago and whose histories were confined to that of a particular family.
Describing dynastic parties as the biggest threat to India's democracy, he said Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, "concerned about his global image", refused to send the Army to help Ram Manohar Lohia led 'satyagrahis' working for Goa's independence.
The Congress, he added, delayed Goa's independence by 15 years until after India attained freedom.
Modi also listed instances of past Congress governments muzzling the freedom of expression and cited Lata Mangeshkar's musician brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar being sacked from All India Radio for presenting a poetry on Veer Savarkar. Lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri, he added, was jailed for criticising Jawaharlal Nehru.
Whenever someone within the Congress has spoken against a particular family, the results have been there for all to see, the prime minister said, naming the late Sitaram Kesri. Kesri, who spoke out against the Gandhi family, was removed as party president.
