‘If you hate Congress...’: Mallikarjun Kharge slams PM Modi

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday condemned PM Narendra Modi for allegedly “misusing” his motion of thanks in Rajya Sabha to belittle the Congress instead of addressing important issues.

“If you hate Congress, Gandhi Ji, Nehru Ji,or Rahul Ji, say all that outside Parliament. He (PM Modi) dropped our issues of Pegasus, Covid, inflation, etc…We weren’t even born when Congress fought and won independence. He misused his motion of thanks and left his principles,” Mallikarjun Kharge said.

PM Modi on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Congress as he accused the Opposition party of destabilising state governments, corruption, putting a family’s interests over everyone else’s and not respecting freedom of speech among others.

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In an all-out attack, PM Modi also said, “Some Members asked- if there was no Congress, what would happen...I would like to say, if there was no Congress there would be no Emergency, there would be no caste politics, Sikhs would never have been massacred, the problems of Kashmiri Pandits would not have happened.”

He added that had Congress not been there, “democracy would have had been free of dynastic culture” and the “blot of Emergency would have not been there”.

The Opposition on Tuesday staged a walk out of Rajya Sabha after PM Modi’s blistering attack on former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Reacting to the PM’s speech, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi again raised the ‘two Indias’ issue.

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Earlier, Kharge had said instead of responding with facts and data to key issues raised by the Opposition, such as unemployment, inflation, farmers’ issues and Covid-19 related misery of the people, Modi’s speech was an attempt to cover up his government’s failures by taunting the Opposition party.

“People were in trouble during the Covid-19 crisis. As a Prime Minister, it’s not right to cover up your mistakes by taunting others and by attacking the Congress. The PM made such a speech only to hide his faults. He must rise above all this for the sake of humanity,” Kharge said on Tuesday.

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