As the Congress staged a protest march to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday against growing intolerance in the country and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “endorsing” incidents of hate, the ruling
As the Congress staged a protest march to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday against growing intolerance in the country and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “endorsing” incidents of hate, the ruling BJP hit back at the Opposition party saying it has become the “real enemy of peace, social harmony and economic progress” of the country. The party said the PM’s vision is “transparent, mission of prosperity and development for all” and to end to “historic curse of poverty”. It also sought to link the Congress leaders’ protest march with the probe into controversial land deals involving Robert Vadra, claiming that the party started this “farce of a protest” in reaction to investigation “reaching the doorsteps” of the Gandhi family.
The BJP also hit out saying “politically-displaced” people were challenging the democratic mandate and were resorting to such “dramatic actions” out of their desperation to stay relevant.
Senior BJP leader and Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu accused the Congress of having “political intolerance” genes and said the Opposition party leaders should have gone to Raj Bhavans instead of Rashtrapati Bhavan, as such “stray unfortunate” incidents happened in states ruled by the Congress or its friendly parties.
The minister said the Congress was in power for 60 years and has an “octopus-like” presence in most of the academic and cultural institutions. He alleged the Leftists also joined them and became beneficiaries of the patronage.
“The Congress talking about intolerance is like devil quoting scriptures,” Mr Naidu said, adding that the mass exodus and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits happened during their regime. He said a party which imposed Emergency should not talk about intolerance.
“It is a well-organised effort to defame our cultural ethos which are based on time-tested traditions of accommodation and acceptance... This ongoing campaign is a clear effort to derail developmental momentum. They don’t want the Modi government to succeed. Now to say that intolerance is raising suddenly is far from truth,” asserted the Union minister.
He added the Congress lost public support and mandate and is now feeling threatened after the regime change. “They have encouraged furciferous tendencies, aligned with divisional forces and given credibility to extremists like Bhindranwale by calling him a sant, patronised Majlis, aligned with the Muslim League,” Mr Naidu alleged.
Labelling the Congress’ protest march a “farce”, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said: “This is not an ordinary march. This march is happening when you are going to get caught and investigation has come to your doorstep.”
