PATNA: Hitting out at the Narendra Modi government over imposing its own ideology on the people, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the way innocents were killed based on rumours and intellectuals targeted under the current regime has threatened the democratic fabric of the country.
Addressing an election rally at Buxar ahead of the third phase of Assembly polls, Gandhi said, “Innocents are being killed on the basis of rumours. The way intellectuals are denied freedom to express their opinion, it is trying to weaken the foundation of our democracy and social harmony. It is not just sad but also shameful.”
Hitting back at Modi on his repeated accusation that the Congress party has done nothing in its 60 years of rule, Gandhi said, “I want to tell you all this, especially to the youth, that there was a time that due to colonial rule, there was nothing left in the country”, adding that in the past six decades, the Congress ushered in revolutionary changes in education, health care, agriculture, industry as well as in nuclear and other areas. “It is the Congress government that strengthened democracy in the country and because of that Modi could become the Prime Minister today. See what these people have done in the past one-and-a-half years,” Gandhi said.
Speaking on the backdrop of the Dadri incident, Gandhi said Hindus and Muslims never fought among themselves but are made to fight for political reasons. “Who knows this better than the BJP?” she asked. The Congress president also targeted the Union government for the spiraling prices of essential commodities like pulses, rising unemployment and the issue of farmer suicides. Accusing Modi of making false promises, Gandhi asked why the PM could not provide electricity 24/7 in his home constituency of Varanasi.
Correlating the Assembly polls with the historical battle of Buxar, she asked the voters for a decisive mandate for the fight between two ideologies.
The third phase of the elections will held on October 28th after Durga Puja holidays. The Congress party is contesting the election as a constituent of the Grand Alliance that includes the RJD and the JD (U).
Meanwhile, CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad sharpened their attack on Modi and claimed that the saffron party has suffered badly in the first two phases of voting. “Export has reached bottom this year after regular fall in the past 10 months... Modiji forget ‘Acheche din’ (good days), please return our ‘purane din’ (old days),” Kumar said in his tweet slamming the PM.
Addressing an election rally at Baniapur in Saran district, Kumar claimed that as per information reaching him, BJP has suffered badly in the first two voting phases. The RJD chief said in his tweet “BJP’s ‘dal’ (pulse) did not cook in Bihar. It made pulses costly. They are filling pockets of rich by taking away plates of poor.”