Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging he is running his government in an atmosphere of “fear”. On Gandhi Jayanti, she also invoked the Father of the Nation to take on the government, saying it swears by his name but demolishes his ideals through its actions.
The Congress leader also accused the Centre of having weakened laws like MNREGA and Right to Information (RTI) Act which her party’s government had enacted to protect the interests of common people. “Some people swear by Gandhiji’s name but demolish his ideals and principles through their actions. Anarchy, atrocity and mistreatment prevail everywhere. An environment of discrimination has been created in the society where atrocities are being inflicted on innocent people,” she said.
Sonia Gandhi was addressing via video conference a “Gandhi Chetna Rally” at Congress party office in Motihari, East Champaran, Bihar, to mark the birth anniversary of Gandhi. It was in Champaran where Gandhi had experimented with ‘’Satyagraha’’ for the first time in India. It would later become his most potent weapon in the fight against the British rule.
“Enough is enough. I would like to say that some people are running the government by creating an atmosphere of emotion, confusion and fear (bhavna, bhram aur bhay). You (people) need to remain alert and cautious and take the right decisions,” she said. “We have to fight it out together and that will be our real tribute to Gandhiji.”
She also unveiled a life-size statue of the Mahatma, and asserted his ideals are the “soul and spirit” of her party.
In her speech, Sonia Gandhi said the Modi government first ridiculed the MNREGA, the UPA government’s rural livelihood scheme, but later continued with it.
