Tearing into the Narendra Modi government, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi said that democracy allows dissent and debate and not monologues.
Speaking at the India Today Conclave in New Delhi on Friday, 9 March, Gandhi said, "Our judiciary is in turmoil. The RTI was brought to bring transparency, but today, that law is in cold storage. Aadhaar is being turned into intrusive instrument of control."
Taking a jibe at the BJP-led NDA government's claim of India progressing under their rule, Sonia said, "Was India really a giant black hole before 26 May 2014? Did India march to progress, prosperity and greatness just four years ago? Is this claim not an insult to the intelligence of our people?”
However, Gandhi noted that the Congress also needs to develop a new style of connecting with people at the organisational level. She said, "We were out-marketed. We have to really develop a new style of connecting with the people. We have to look how we project our programmes and policies."
Sonia also hit out at the BJP government and accused them of trying to malign the Congress as a Muslim party. “BJP has managed to persuade people that Congress is a Muslim party. We have always been to temples. When I traveled with Rajiv Gandhi, wherever we used to go, there was always a major temple that we used to visit. But we never made a show of it.”
Speaking about her own role in leadership after the Congress came to power in 2004, Sonia said that she knew Manmohan Singh would be better a prime minister than her, and that she was aware of her limitations.
In her deeply introspective speech, the Congress leader spoke on a wide range of topics, including her children, her own shortcomings and the role of democracy in India, the first time she has opened up since relinquishing the party president post.
A day earlier on Thursday, 8 March, speaking at a panel discussion at the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said there is a general atmosphere of "intimidation" in India where "nasty form of politics" of dividing people are being played to win elections.
(With inputs from PTI)
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