Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s “disruptionist” strategy in Parliament was symptomatic of the same thought process that resulted in imposition of the National Emergency in the country.
The Congress' “hatred” for the BJP, according to the PM, stems from a desire for a “family dictatorship” that cannot accept a democratically-elected government.
Meanwhile, in a blog post, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also targeted the Nehru-Gandhi family, suggesting that “the more Rahul Gandhi grows, the more he immatures(sic)”.
For the purpose, BJP MPs and Ministers will fan out across the country to educate the people about the Congress’s “designs” to “kill democracy”. Between September 25 and October 2, MPs and Ministers will hold public meetings, targeting the 44 constituencies represented by the Congress and nine others by the Left MPs.
Rally to Parliament As a sign of things to to come, the NDA MPs and Ministers, including Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, LK Advani held a march from Vijay Chowk to the Parliament precincts. The MPs held placards saying “Save Democracy” and stood near the Gandhi statue. The NDA also passed a resolution moved by Minister for Food Processing Industries and Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Speaking to the MPs during the meeting, the Prime Minister said the Congress had brought politics to a “new low”.
'Saving the family' “That someone treats democracy with such obvious hatred has probably never been witnessed by the country so far,” he was quoted as saying by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy. “Congress wants to save the family, while BJP wants to save the country as it is our principle,” Rudy said, quoting the PM.
“The Prime Minister recalled the days of the Emergency when he was a political worker in the Jayaprakash Narayan movement. The Emergency was imposed because power stayed with one family. The attitude of the Congress confirms what we have always believed – they are completely desperate when out of power and the symptoms are of a family dictatorship. But we are here to protect democracy resist the promotion of one family,” Rudy said.
NDA passes resolution The NDA Parliamentary Party also passed a resolution against the “deliberate and forcible” disruption of the Monsoon Session by Congress and called upon the people to see through the party’s “patently undemocratic”. “The petulant politics of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi is stealing jobs from the poor, who will benefit most from a rising economy, for reasons that are trite, tired, prurient and manifestly fallacious,” the resolution read.
Jaitley’s broadside Later, Jaitley told reporters that the logjam in Parliament was a result of the “family” not being able to tolerate anyone else assuming power.
“The Congress continues to be enslaved to a family...willing to compromise national interest because the family is unable to digest its electoral defeat…Sonia Gandhi hit a new low. It is for the first time that a senior-most leader of a mainstream party has jumped into the Well of the House. As for Rahul Gandhi, there was no serious expectation that he would raise the level of the debate. He has failed to recognise the difference between sloganeering and a Parliament speech. The more he grows, the more he immatures (sic),” Jaitley wrote on his blog.