BJP govt staging drama to hide its failures: Kharge
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party is staging a drama of observing 'Samvidhan Hatya Diwas' to mark the Emergency to hide governance failures, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said on Wednesday, arguing that the Constitution faced a threat from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge addressing a press conference at Indira Bhawan in New Delhi. (HT PHOTO)
Other Opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) joined the attack against the BJP.
'Modi is raking up Emergency after 50 years to hide his failures. If there is any threat to the Constitution, it is from you,' Kharge said in a special press conference. 'You have brought in an undeclared emergency,' he added.
The Congress deliberately held the press conference at Indira Bhavan -- its new party headquarters -- to put up a brave face against the BJP's campaign marking 50 years of the Emergency, which was clamped by then prime minister Indira Gandhi on June 25, 1975.
'Those (BJP-RSS) people who are talking of Samvidhan bachao are now raking up the Emergency after 50 years. It was something people had forgotten and they are now raking it up to hide their own failures,' Kharge said.
'These people failed in governance and their failure is such that people are concerned over inflation, the government has no answer to unemployment, corruption and economic failure. To hide their lies and failure they have staged this drama,' he added.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that the BJP's Emergency campaign 'reflects its guilty conscience' while Kharge maintained that 'a government which does not practice tolerance, fraternity, liberty, should not teach us these things.'
The Congress president also alleged the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh did not participate in India's freedom movement and quipped that people who didn't contribute for India's independence or in the making of the Constitution were now 'claiming to be its guardians and protectors.'
Kharge also said that the country has moved ahead, and Indira Gandhi herself had supported the Morarji Desai government's decision to overturn constitutional amendments made during the Emergency.
The Congress chief also took the opportunity to hit out at the Election Commission. 'The EC has become a puppet in the hands of the government. Like we have puppets that are made to do things to entertain. You have a puppet and you (Modi) claim that you are winning elections. You are not winning elections your machine is winning,' Kharge alleged.
He also took potshots at the PM and quipped that Modi is a 'Vishwaguru' who cannot solve his country's problems.
'How ironic that @BJP4India observes #SamvidhanHatyaDiwas when, for the last 11 years under PM @narendramodi, India has been living through an UNDECLARED EMERGENCY,' the TMC posted on X.
It said that one man and one party had 'replaced the will of 1.4 billion people'.
'History has been distorted beyond recognition, laws are passed without debate, scrutiny, or consensus...ECI has reduced itself to BJP's rubber stamp,' the party posted on X.
Kerala chief minister Pinarai Vijayan said, 'The declaration of Emergency in 1975 was not a spontaneous event, but the culmination of tyrannical tendencies that surfaced in independent India. 50 years have gone by, and today we're facing an undeclared emergency under the Sangh Parivar regime, enforced through majoritarianism. Haunting memories of the Emergency should empower us to fight against the oppressive forces that challenge the essence of our democracy today.'
BJP leader Sambit Patra defended his party and said, 'The sarcastic remark made today by Kharge on the Emergency is also a mockery of democracy. He questions why a 50-year-old event is being remembered. Mallikarjun Kharge himself says that those who were not part of the freedom struggle should not speak on the subject—so how can he decide that the BJP must not speak about the Emergency?'
'How can Mallikarjun Kharge decide who participated in the freedom struggle and who didn't? Every family in this country had at least one member who was directly or indirectly a part of that movement. Now, he should explain where Sonia Gandhi's family was involved in the freedom struggle.'
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