BJP making shameless attempt to subvert democracy in Maharashtra, says Sonia Gandhi

Sonia Gandhi 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

Congress president Sonia Gandhi
Congress president Sonia Gandhi
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NH Web Desk

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 and said that he acted in an "unprecedented and reprehensible manner".

All party MPs from Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were present in the meeting.


Here is the full text of the speech:

We are meeting this morning in the backdrop of what can only be described as a shameless attempt to subvert democracy in Maharashtra. You are all aware of the sequence of events.  The Governor behaved in an unprecedented and most reprehensible manner. There is no doubt that he 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.

It is clear that the Modi-Shah government is bankrupt of decency and is clueless on how to manage the grave problems facing the country.  The economic crisis is deepening by the day.  Growth is declining, unemployment is growing, and investment is 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 be 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.

Our party spoke out against the RCEP Agreement which India was about to sign. We did so in order to protect the interests of farmers, fishermen, small and medium enterprises and our manufacturing industry.  Our voice played a major role in the Prime Minister’s sudden and hypocritical discovery of Gandhiji’s talisman in Bangkok.

To divert the attention of our people from their day-to-day livelihood concerns, the Prime Minister and his Home Minister persist in pursuing divisive policies. These issues, like the one relating to amendments in the citizenship law, strike at the very foundations of our Constitution.

It is sheer hypocrisy on the part of the Modi-Shah establishment to celebrate November 26th as Constitution Day while deceitfully subverting this sacred document day in and day out!  The whole of the northeast is in turmoil because of these amendments.  And because the NRC project implemented by the BJP government in Assam, monitored by the Supreme Court, has not fulfilled the RSS-BJP expectations and propaganda, there is now clamour in the ruling party for a fresh NRC in that state. The Home Minister is also speaking of unleashing an NRC in the entire country – a step that will only lead to more fear and panic.

Three months ago, democracy was again subverted when article 370 was erased (read down) under the blatantly false promise of a new beginning in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.  But the ground realities are completely different from the fictitious images conjured up by the Modi-Shah government.  The agony, anguish and humiliation of the people continues.  Former Chief Ministers, who in the past were political allies of the BJP, MLAs, political workers, ordinary people, who believed in the idea of India, who abided by the Constitution of India, have been under house arrest for months. Even children are not being spared in the crackdown. When a delegation of political party leaders led by Rahul flew to Srinagar, they were not allowed to enter the city, leave alone meet the people. Instead, to add insult to injury, the government preferred to shamefully organize clean chits from a clutch of European parliamentarians brought along by a dubious NGO.

Through the RTI,  the true story of the electoral bonds has been brought to light.  It turns out to be another clandestine operation, done in haste and against the considered advice of the Reserve Bank of India. There are several infirmities in this scheme which seems to have been pushed through by the Prime Minister only to benefit the ruling party and protect its financiers – while removing wholesale any checks and balances in this sensitive matter of political funding.

In the last few weeks, we have also witnessed another sordid and yet-unexplained scandal. The government sought to soft-pedal revelations that the WhatsApp accounts of a number of individuals critical of the ruling establishment have been under surveillance through PEGASUS, a spying software.  This was all the more shocking since access to such software acquired from Israel is admittedly restricted only to government defence agencies. What was the government’s role in violating the fundamental rights of the citizens concerned?  But as always, it remains silent.

The election results in Haryana and Maharashtra proved those predicting doom were hopelessly wrong.  I want to congratulate our colleagues in these states who put up a very creditable performance. The results certainly punctured the BJP’s self importance and boosted our party’s morale. The BJP will use every method including intimidation, hoping to scare us into submission.  But, we will not buckle under pressure, we will fight every battle with grit and determination.

We are launched on a programme to highlight the colossal failures of the government on the economic front. The demonstrations in different parts of the country will come to a climax on December 14 with a rally in New Delhi. I urge all of you to play your part in ensuring that our message is spread far and wide – the message of complete mismanagement in all sectors, of unfulfilled promises and deceit, and betrayal of the people.

Friends, let us be united in our resolve to stand up to the Modi-Shah regime, a regime that knows or follows NO rules and conventions, intoxicated by power, and wielding it to strike at every institution of our democracy, at political opponents [like our colleagues  Shivakumar and Chidambaram.  It is sheer vindictiveness that has kept Chidambaram in prison for almost 100 days.] 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.

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Published: 28 Nov 2019, 10:41 AM