The Congress on Thursday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over controversial remarks made by BJP leaders, calling him a “dictator” without whose permission nobody can “utter a word”.
The Congress on Thursday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over controversial remarks made by BJP leaders, calling him a “dictator” without whose permission nobody can “utter a word”.
“The government has a solo leader... (it is) dictatorship. No MP, whether he is a sadhu or a sadhvi, can utter a word without signal from him,” Congress spokesman Shaktisinh Gohil said.
Several BJP leaders, including Gorakhpur MP Yogi Adityanath, were recently in the news over making allegedly intemperate remarks. Mr Adityanath had compared Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan to Pakistani terrorist Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai carnage, over his “extreme intolerance” comment.
Before him, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya had triggered a row with a series of tweets in which he called Shah Rukh an “anti-national” and said that the actor’s “soul” is in Pakistan though he lives in India. Under fire for the remark, he later withdrew the controversial tweets but asserted had there been intolerance in India, Shah Rukh would not have been the most popular actor after Amitabh Bachchan.
Mr Gohil hit back at the PM for his remarks made during the Bihar poll campaign that the Congress cannot lecture the NDA over “intolerance” after the 1984 riots, saying the party has already apologised for the anti-Sikh pogrom, while Narendra Modi is yet to express regret over the Gujarat riots.
Mr Gohil said Mr Modi was told by the then PM Atal Behari Vajpayee to follow raj dharma and claimed the Supreme Court had also asked him to quit if he could not protect people.
Charging the Modi government with being soft to smugglers, the Congress said its circular has made a provision of “no immediate criminal case” against smuggling of precious metals, items prohibited and foreign currency whose value is over Rs 20 lakh.
Addressing a press conference Mr Gohil said instead of initiating criminal proceedings against person caught with contrabands under the Customs act immediately, the Modi government has said that the “action should be taken after departmental inquiry which should be completed within six months”.
As per section 135 of the Customs Act,there is a provision of criminal proceedings and departmental action as soon as a person is caught smuggling huge amount of contraband. But the government’s recent circular made a provision of “no immediate criminal case “ against smuggling of precious metals, he said.
He said the circular is against the Customs Act and will bankrupt economy. “ It is like achche din for big smugglers.” The provision of departmental inquiry first within six months,is a ploy so that smugglers cannot be put behind the bars.And once 60 day period is over,smuggler get bail by deault,he interpreted.
The UPA government had made smuggling a non bailable offence but the BJP government is giving them open field .he said.
