NEW DELHI, May 30: The Narendra Modi dispensation is harmful for the country as it has failed on every front and betrayed people’s trust, the Congress charged on Sunday on the seventh anniversary of the government.
“The truth is Modi government’s seven years are a story of immeasurable pain, insurmountable devastation and unfathomable agony and anguish for a nation of 140 crore people,” the party said.
The opposition party released a seven-point charge-sheet of “blunders” it accused the government of committing, and alleged that the Modi dispensation abdicated its responsibilities towards people.
The Congress listed out what it called the major failures of the government, including a declining economy, rising unemployment and inflation, and COVID-19 mismanagement.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the government needs to have the right intention, policy and determination to fight the coronavirus and not just a monthly talk.
“You need the right intention, policy and determination to fight Corona and not just a pointless talk once in a month,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, on a day when Prime Minister Modi delivered his monthly “Mann ki baat” radio address.
Congress general secretary and chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the last seven years have been a story of unprecedented devastation, abdication of responsibility and abandonment of India’s people by a Government that was showered with all the love and affection.
“This Government is harmful for the country as it has betrayed the faith of people of India. It is betraying the trust and the innate faith the people reposed in prime minister Narendra Modi,” he said.
“This is a deception of the worst kind heaped upon 140 crore Indians by a government they elected based on innumerable promises. After seven years time has come to do stock taking. Time has come to ask why the country is suffering,” he said.
The Congress also came out with a 4.5-minute video, “Bharat Mata ki Kahani”, listing out the “failures” of the government in the last seven years.
“The truth is Modi government’s seven years are a story of immeasurable pain, insurmountable devastation and unfathomable agony and anguish for a nation of 140 crore people. The Modi government has abandoned its people and abdicated its duty and responsibility in the middle of the pandemic,” Surjewala told reporters.
He said the Modi government is guilty of attacking the poor, the middle class and the marginalised instead of attacking poverty.
“The Modi government has decimated by design a robust Indian economy into deep economic recession today. The Modi government is responsible for runaway inflation where petrol is crossing Rs 100 for first time in 70 years and mustard oil is crossing Rs 200 per litre.
“The Modi government is guilty of unpardonable compromise on national integrity as also our territorial integrity. The Modi government has only given us pain and suffering and has decimated the very edifice of democracy in this country and we need to restore it as a nation together,” he said.
Training his guns on the prime minister, he said it is probably for the first time ever in this country that the government left lakhs of Indians to fend for their own people and die during the pandemic.
“Can a ruler run away from one’s responsibility like this. You can be event-jeevi (event manager), swapan-jeevi (dreamer) and jumla-jeevi (rhetorical), but you never became a sewa-jeevi (service-oriented) and kartavya-jeevi (dutiful) in these seven years and that is the truth about you,” Surjewala alleged.
The Congress leader said the time has come to ask why “a pseudo-nationalist government utterly failed to defend our borders and to push back the Chinese from our territory”.
“Time has come to ask who is responsible for insurmountable devastation, agony and anguish and unfathomable pain that has been inflicted on the people of India and that is why it is time for stock-taking,” he said.
On the Congress’s poor performance at the hustings and the party not being considered as an alternative force, Surjewala said the party leadership is aware that its first priority is to save the nation from the Modi-made disaster and ensure bringing the nation back on the path of progress and help put money in the pockets of people, increase their incomes and wipe the tears of farmers and reach out to the poor and vulnerable.
“The Congress party is working out what needs to be done to fulfil these priorities,” he said, adding that the party will work harder to win the trust of the people.
The Congress leader said party chief Sonia Gandhi has ensured that it can work as part of a coalition as it is in partnership with many parties in some states, even as a junior partner.
“The Congress party understands the priorities as the Congress is an ideology and all parties have emerged through it,” he said. (PTI)