NEW DELHI: Joining the debate with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on ‘the state of democracy’, BJP chief J P Nadda alleged that the opposition party has shown contempt for dissenting voices for decades.
Reacting to an article by Gandhi in which she hit out at the ruling dispensation for alleged “stifling of dissenting voices”, Nadda said the Congress possesses “despondency and shamelessness which is dangerous”.
In a series of tweets, he sought to remind the Congress chief of the past.
“On freedom of speech, the Congress can never pontificate to others. They have contempt for dissenting voices for decades. We saw glimpses of it during the Emergency. Later on, the Rajiv Gandhi government made a brazen attempt to weaken press freedom. A free press rattles the Congress,” tweeted Nadda.
“Empty rhetoric of decency and democracy by the mother (Sonia Gandhi) is complemented by live demonstrations of politics of hate, anger, lies and aggression by the son (Rahul Gandhi). Double standards galore,” exclaimed Nadda in another tweet.
The BJP chief also came down heavily against Rahul Gandhi for burning of the effigy of the PM Narendra Modi in Punjab.
“The Rahul Gandhi-directed drama of burning PM’s effigy in Punjab is shameful but not unexpected. After all, the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty has never respected the office of the PM,” he said.
“If anyone wants to see a laboratory of usage of brute state power, troubling opponents, curbing freedom of speech in trademark Congress style, see the working of the Congress blessed Maharashtra government. Except governing, they are doing everything else,” claimed Nadda.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar also sought to contrast the track records of the NDA and its predecessor UPA dispensation, saying while the Shaheen Bagh protests (against the CAA) went on peacefully, the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh government had ordered lathicharge at the protesters, led by yoga guru Baba Ramdev, at the Ramlila Ground in Delhi.