Says Prime Minister Narendra Modi, adding that the Father of the Nation wanted the party to be disbanded after Independence
Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks in the Rajya Sabha yesterday. He addressed both houses in the Parliament. Pic/PTI
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday launched a scathing attack on the Congress saying while it still wanted an "old India" marked by Emergency, scams and violence against Sikhs, his party wanted to create a 'New India'.
He also sought the opposition's cooperation in the passage of the OBC Bill and the triple talaq bill, besides holding constructive discussion on holding simultaneous polls to Parliament and state assemblies. Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks on President's address in the Rajya Sabha, he said the slogan of 'Congress-mukt Bharat' was not coined by him but by Mahatma Gandhi.
"You don't need 'New India', but the India of Emergency, Bofors and chopper scams. "We want Mahatma Gandhi's India as he had said there is no need for Congress now. The slogan of 'Congress-mukt Bharat' is not Modi's idea, it was given by Mahatma Gandhi," he said amid thumping of desks by BJP members.
The PM recalled the words of former PM Rajiv Gandhi after then prime minister Indira Gandhi's death, and said the party wanted an India in which thousands of innocent Sikhs were done to death. "'When a big tree falls'...you remember these lines. Is this the India the Congress wants," he asked.
Speech 'disappointing': Cong
The Congress dubbed as "disappointing" Modi's speech in the Lok Sabha. The main opposition party, whose MPs walked out of the House over Modi's reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the president for his address to the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament, said it did not address the issues raised by lawmakers, including on the Rafale deal.
Rahul targets PM again
Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused Modi of protecting those behind alleged corruption in the Rafale deal and said he needs to answer the country on questions posed to him on it. "He made a political speech, a campaign speech, but did not speak on the issues before the country...The prime minister talked for one hour, but did not utter a single word about the Rafale deal... "Questions are being asked by the country from the prime minister, but he is not answering... here (in Parliament) you have to give answers and not ask questions to the country instead," he said.
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