Government muzzling dissent: Sonia Gandhi

Congress reaches out to parties to corner govt in session

The Congress Working Committee on Monday launched a frontal attack on the Modi government, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar on the eve of the Budget Session of Parliament, saying: “What has been happening is part of a deliberate plan to divert attention from the Central government’s numerous failures” on reviving the economy, controlling food inflation, internal security and growing rural distress.

A combative Congress chief Sonia Gandhi accused the Modi government of having “lost all sense of balance” and undermining democratic norms over the JNU row, making it clear that the Congress will take up the issue aggressively, along with like-minded parties, in the session.

Addressing a special meeting of the CWC, Mrs Gandhi said: “The ruling establishment seems to have lost all sense of balance, and of proportion. It appears determined to undermine all democratic norms. It seems hell-bent on destroying the spirit of inquiry, the spirit of questioning, the spirit of debate and dissent.”

“First it muzzled our voice in the Lok Sabha. Then it silenced civil society activists and organisations. Now is the turn of universities,” Mrs Gandhi said.

She said social justice is being demeaned by callousness to victims of caste discrimination. Foundations of communal harmony are being systematically eroded. Professional organisations are becoming the mouthpiece of those in power. Courts are being turned into akharas and elected governments are being subverted, the Congress president said, asking why action has not been taken against blatant corruption in BJP-ruled states for which there is clear evidence. “To cover up its many failures, the ruling establishment has once again unleashed its divisive agenda by generating a wholly unwarranted debate on patriotism and nationalism,” she said.

The CWC resolution charged that the BJP, the RSS and affiliated organisations have “engineered [the] disturbing developments [which have] taken place in recent months across the country” while viewing that the fabric of communal harmony is being systematically eroded and the atmosphere for social harmony being systematically vitiated.

The Congress will raise these and others issues with “like-minded” parties in Parliament, it said.

The CWC, the highest decision-making body of the party, said: “A totally manufactured debate on patriotism and nationalism is being generated through manipulated news clips to cover up the government’ failure and its heavy-handedness in dealing with student protesters.”

The special meeting of the CWC, which was presided over by Mrs Gandhi and attended by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and others, passed a resolution on the current situation.