Welcoming Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to hail India for its independent foreign policy, Congress said that the foundation stone of a strong foreign policy was laid by independent India’s first Prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
“I welcome the statements made by Russian President Putin. And I am extremely proud of the fact that India’s foreign policy has stood us in good faith after all these years,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said.
“I am extremely proud of the fact that the bedrock of this foreign policy was laid out by Independent India’s first Prime minister Nehru and Prime Ministers after him, like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi or Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Everybody followed the basic tenets of non-alignment laid down by Pandit Nehru,” she said.
She further said that India did not follow any of the blocks during the cold war. It helped us in our independent thinking, independent view and it has served our own good, she said.
“I am extremely proud that in 2022, the same foreign policy is being lauded. I think that it’s foolhardy for any political party, including the BJP, to make false claims about this. Foreign policy is a function of the Indian state. It is not a function of any political party. That is how it needs to be respected,” she added.
Her remarks came after Putin on Thursday showered praise on PM Narendra Modi and India’s independent foreign policy, calling him a “true patriot”.
Shrinate also slammed the Election Commission of India (ECI) and said that on July 16, 2022, PM Modi used the word revadi for the first time in one of his speeches in Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand.
Shrinate said that she believes that the discussion of revadi (freebies) is going in the wrong direction. “What is revadi? If you do something for the livelihood of the people in this country battling unemployment, low income and inflation, is it revadi? If it is a revadi, then what is it when you waive off ₹10 lakh crore loans of the rich?” she asked.
Shrinate said, “According to Article 324, it is the responsibility of the Election Commission to conduct ‘free and fair’ elections. But what promises to political parties make to the people and how much influence do they have on people who vote for them – we believe that this is not the purview of the Election Commission.”
Slamming the BJP, Shrinate said, “Our law says that no political party can use armed forces in elections. But many BJP leaders, including PM Modi, used armed forces through posters and speeches. We went to the commission regarding this issue and the commission gave them a clean chit.”
She also pointed out that Congress had talked about MNREGA, the Food Security Act, the Right to Education and the Right to Information in its manifesto and fulfilled it.
“BJP promised 2 crore jobs every year, ₹15 lakh in each account, a 5 trillion dollar economy, double the income of farmers by 2022, 24-hour electricity and low inflation. Like all the promises were made. But it all turned out to be rhetoric. It was revdiyan,” she alleged.