New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah came down heavily on the Congress on Thursday, saying the interests of one family prevailed over the party and national interests, and questioned why the ‘Emergency mindset’ still remained in the opposition party.
On the 45th year of the imposition of Emergency in the country, Shah claimed leaders are feeling suffocated in the Congress and the party’s disconnect with people keeps widening.
“On this day, 45 years ago one family’s greed for power led to the imposition of the Emergency. Overnight the nation was turned into a prison. The press, courts, free speech…all were trampled over. Atrocities were committed on the poor and downtrodden,” he said in a series of tweets.
Former prime minister Indira Gandhi had imposed Emergency on June 25, 1975 and it continued till March 21, 1977.
The home minister said due to the efforts of lakhs of people, the Emergency was lifted, democracy was restored in India but it remained absent in the Congress.
“The interests of one family prevailed over party’s interests and national interests. This sorry state of affairs thrives in today’s Congress too!,” he said.
Referring to a recent Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, Shah said senior and younger members raised a few issues but, they were shouted down.
He said a Congress party spokesperson was unceremoniously sacked and the sad truth was that leaders were feeling suffocated in Congress.
“As one of India’s opposition parties, Congress needs to ask itself: Why does the Emergency mindset remain? Why are leaders who don’t belong to one dynasty unable to speak up? Why are leaders getting frustrated in Congress?
“Else, their disconnect with people will keep widening,” he said.
Shah also shared links of two news reports in his tweets.
The first was related to a recent CWC meeting where Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that he was “not scared of PM Modi” and would continue to attack him, while accusing most leaders of skipping direct criticism of the prime minister.
According to the news, Gandhi flew into a rage when CWC permanent invitee RPN Singh suggested that Congress must ensure that criticism of Modi on the Chinese incursion was not personal.
The second news report which Shah shared was on the removal of Sanjay Jha as a spokesperson of the Congress, days after he wrote a newspaper article critical of the party.
In the article published recently, Jha had said, “The Congress has demonstrated extraordinary lassitude, and its lackadaisical attitude towards its own political obsolescence is baffling…”
“I would like to call a spade a spade here and a shovel: there has been no serious effort to get the party up and running with any sense of urgency,” he had said in the article in a national daily.
Also read: This is no Emergency. Modi and Shah are using democracy to subvert democracy
CONGRESS PARTY IS ONE FAMILY. BY ITS WISE PLANS INDIA IS WELL ADVANCED IN ALL FIELDS. FROM NOTHING TO EVERYTHING IT’S CONGRESS SHAKTI. AT PRESENT SEE THE SITUATIONS MADE BY JUST 2 MEN PARTY.
Well said sanjiv.
Shekhar Gupta why are you selective about comments. Why no space is earmarked for comments under certain articles. Could you please advise. Thanks
The harm the Nehru-Gandhi-Vadras have done to India is unimaginable.
With all the resources India has, it should have been a reasonably developed country 3 decades after freedom in 1947.
The pot calling the kettle black! No doubt that the Congress has paid a heavy price for the Emergency. and its loyalty to one family has resulted in many abandoning ship, or being dumped. But the BJP is no different. Just replace FAMILY with PERSONALITY. Where is democracy under the BJP? Where is freedom of the press, freedom of the judiciary, freedom of the bureaucracy, or even of the parliamentary system that has been completely subverted through brazen horse trading?
Well said.
In fact judiciary has been completely destroyed by the Modi-Shah & Ravi Shankar Prasad in last six years. Previous Emergency was not as bad as the present situation in terms of the plight of judiciary.
Don’t you see freedom for Republic TV Zee Rajat’s Tv and a selected few others!!!
Haha, I like the joke. When REALLY “Achhe Din” come, I hope the licenses of Goswami and that Chowdhury fellow of Zee will be cancelled FOR LIFE. The best punishment for such sold-out gas bags is that they should be made to rot at home.
And as long as there are listeners and as art of its diversionary tactics, the BJP will forever flog a dead horse long after it is dead.
RahulG’s foolish pro=China & anti-India statements and his antics are enough to tilt the balance in BJP’s favor.
4 more years of the RahulG show and MadamG’s “strategic statements” and even more telling silences are enough consign the Congress to the dustbin of history. If the Congress think tanks have any brains left – they should ask RahulG & MadamG to take a backseat.
Not taking back seat. They should be expelled and all right thinking democratically minded congressmen must unite and revive the party before 2024.otherwise it will be end of Congress.
If there is anyone just like Sanjay Gandhi in Indian politics today it is Narendra Modi himself. And what is happening in the country today is worse than the Emergency when at least there was an opposition still alive. India is currently going through what can only be called a Super Emergency – run as it is by one Supreme Leader and his fat sidekick.
These BJP guys should give up this nonsense now, one family bashing. We have seen these guys for 6 years, and they have proved to be far more disgusting than the Congress.