HYDERABAD: Union Minister for Coal and Mines G Kishan Reddy on Saturday accused the Congress of having an authoritarian past, hitting back at Rahul Gandhi for describing the Narendra Modi government as fascist.
He said the country had not forgotten the Emergency, when the Congress curtailed press freedom, suspended fundamental rights and jailed people including Jayaprakash Narayan, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and George Fernandes.
Addressing the media at the BJP state office, Kishan termed the Bharat Summit an “Anti-India Summit” and demanded a white paper on its outcomes. He further alleged that public money had been spent on foreign delegates’ air travel and accommodation in star hotels.
Kishan also dismissed Rahul’s phone-tapping allegations as bizarre and called him a “pittal dora” in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Minister of State Bandi Sanjay Kumar described the Bharat Summit as a failure and accused Rahul of tarnishing India’s image before foreign delegates by claiming that democracy was under threat.
“India is the world’s greatest democracy. If there are problems within a family, its members discuss and resolve them internally,” he said.
On Rahul’s claims about voter deletions, Sanjay said removing the names of deceased persons, duplicate voters and those who had permanently migrated was necessary.
He further questioned why the Congress government had failed to extend Rythu Bharosa assistance to tenant farmers despite highlighting their concerns at the summit.