What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Wednesday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his silence on suspended BJP spokespersons over their controversial remarks on Prophet Muhammed and said India has been shamed for the last eight years on the global platform.
Addressing a press conference here at the party headquarters, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, “Over the last weeks, we have had to face as a country a lot of shame. The entire world has a particular image of the country, India. It’s a beautiful image, an image of our country which is proud of the kind of disparate contradictions, which it can take along with it.”
He said that today all that has changed, thanks to one man, one party, which is Narendra Modi and the BJP.
Questioning the silence of the Prime Minister, Union home minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the Congress leader said, “You haven’t heard the Prime Minister speak a word, you haven’t heard the Home Minister utter a word, you have definitely not heard Jaishankar speak on this issue of hate speech within the country.”
He further said that three of them are very-very fond of speaking.
Taking a swipe at the External Affairs Minister, the Congress leader said, “The only occasion when Jaishankar’s statements go viral is the time he borrows words from (Pandit Jawaharlal) Nehru ji. Why are you silent now? Borrow from Nehru but speak up.”
Accusing the Prime Minister of silencing the voice of the intelligentsia in the country by labelling them as ‘Khan Market gang’, ‘Award Wapsi gang’, ‘Tukde tukde gang’ reminding him of his ‘Raj Dharma’, the Congress leader said that the same government took action after foreign countries exerted pressure.
“We see a worried Prime Minister and the Prime Minister who chooses to immediately act when the world speaks, but, silences the same voices within the country and what kind of action was this- they suspend two official spokespersons of their party and label them as ‘Fringe’, how can the Prime Minister, even afford to use these words?” he said.
He further said that Modi has been through the same journey himself. “I am pained when I use these words for him, but, we have not forgotten his own speeches. You not only come through the same journey, you still resort to the same language, the same tactics and the same stunts when you go for elections because the international community did not point out the ‘Goli Maro’ comment of one of your leaders.
“The entire world has watched how we have done away with our constitutional responsibilities, with our institutions. Can you imagine, our embassies are distributing the press releases by a political party- BJP, it never happened before?” he said.
The remarks from the Congress came after the BJP on Sunday suspended party national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and Delhi BJP unit leader Naveen Jindal for their controversial statements and claimed their views as ‘fringe elements’.
Several nations, including Qatar, Indonesia, the UAE, Libya, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Afghanistan have raised the issue with India.
Earlier Rahul Gandhi has also slammed the BJP government saying, “‘Fringe’ is BJP’s core.” He also attached an infographic that quoted Shah calling Bangladeshi migrants ‘termites’ and of several other top BJP leaders on Twitter on Tuesday.
