New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday hit out at the BJP accusing it of making shameless attempts to “subvert democracy” in Maharashtra and to blatantly sabotage the three-party alliance from coming to power in the state.
Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting in Parliament House, she also attacked the governor of the state, Bhagat Singh Koshyari, saying he had acted in an “unprecedented and reprehensible manner”.
“There is no doubt that he (Koshyari) acted under the instructions of the Prime Minister and the Home Minister. The BJP’s pre-poll alliance did not hold because of its own arrogance and over-confidence.
“Every effort was made to blatantly sabotage the three-party alliance government formation, but we appealed to the Supreme Court and the Modi-Shah government was totally exposed. Let me assure you, we three parties are united in our resolve to defeat the BJP’s sordid manipulations,” she said at the meeting attended by all Congress MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Gandhi said it was clear that the Modi-Shah government is “bankrupt” of decency and clueless on how to manage the grave problems facing the country. The Congress president added that the economic crisis in the country was deepening and growth was declining, unemployment growing and investment not happening.
“There is worsening distress among farmers, traders and small and medium businesses. Consumption, especially in rural areas, is falling. Exports are declining. And prices of essential food commodities are rising, causing hardship to households. Instead of tackling the problem, the Modi-Shah government is busy fudging statistics or, indeed, not publishing them at all!
“The public sector has been put on the block, in all probability, to be sold off to a few favoured business people. What will he the fate of the thousands of workers at those enterprises? Lakhs upon lakhs of salaried and ordinary families are worried about their deposits in banks,” Gandhi said.
The Congress president also attacked the government on the RCEP issue, NRC, reading down of Article 370, electoral bonds and snooping allegations among other things.
“These are undoubtedly extraordinary times when our fortitude and resilience are under the greatest of tests. But collectively we will turn the tide, not for our sake but for the sake of the Constitution, for the sake of a liberal and pluralistic democracy and for the sake of our country and our people,” she said.
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1. Maharashtra will have a government which will have, as partners, political parties that have been political adversaries since 1989. Basic question is whether we need an election law amendment which will compel political parties to declare their intention to form post-poll alliance with their opponents. 2. In this context, let us not overlook what happened in Karnataka. In Karnataka Assembly election held in April/May 2018, not one party could secure a majority. The largest party was BJP but Karnataka’s Congress leaders joined hands and formed an alliance government with JD(S) to deny power to BJP. However, many Congress MLAs were unhappy with alliance with JD(S), as their perception was that Congress party was denied a share of power as per party’s strength in the Karnataka Assembly. Alliance government of JD(S) and Congress has subsequently lost majority and was defeated, leaving a trail of bitterness. In this connection let us not forget what JD(S) boss said recently. JD(S) boss H D Deve Gouda has declared that his party will shun both BJP & Congress in next Assembly election in Karnataka whenever it takes place. 3. Developments in coming months both in Karnataka and Maharashtra will be worth watching. 4. In the meanwhile, citizen-voters must demand implementation of election law reforms so that political parties are compelled to provide details, in their respective pre-election manifestos, of likely post-poll alliances which each party would wish to enter into. This amendment to election law, I suppose, will greatly reduce of scope for power brokers to manipulate and will also reduce scope for use of black money.
BJP hasn’t done anything which the Congress hasn’t already done. Democracy was subverted when 39th amendment to constitution was made to keep election of PM outside the scope of judicial review. Democracy was subverted when 42nd amendment was made to molest the constitution. Democracy was subverted when infamous Emergency was imposed to safeguard Indira Gandhi’s position as PM. Congress governments imposed presidential rules 88 times during congress regime. It is like a street walker preaching the virtues of celibacy.