Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday mounted a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, comparing the BJP’s “nationalism” to that of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Yugoslav President accused of war crimes and genocide, and Pakistan President Yahya Khan, whose repression resulted in creation of Bangladesh.
In an all-round attack, the Congress Vice-President accused the PM of releasing Pakistan from a small “diplomatic cage”, in which it was put after the 26/11 attacks, by his sudden visit to Lahore.
In a speech interrupted several times by BJP members, Rahul made an all-round critique of the PM during the ‘Motion of Thanks’ to the President’s address. From claiming that the PM does not seek the counsel of his own ministers while taking crucial decisions such as signing the Naga Accord and making a detour to Pakistan to “sip tea with Nawaz Sharif”, to “crushing” the voice of the students and launching a “fair and lovely scheme to make black money white”, Rahul’s speech was littered with accusations.
In acerbic remarks on his style of functioning, Rahul said, “Modiji is a powerful man; everyone feels scared of him. But we should ask him questions sometimes. Appealing to the Prime Minister to reach out to the Opposition, Rahul made it clear the Opposition does not consider the government as an “enemy” and “does not hate you”.
He said patriotism for him is respecting “conversations between the people of this Nation” and not simply saluting the “cloth” that makes the National Flag.
“A nation is the relationship between its people. It is nothing but the conversation between its citizens. Destroy the relationships; stop the conversation, and the nation dies. When I salute the flag I am not saluting the cloth. I am saluting the relationships that the flag represents,” said Rahul.
Accusing the PM of “disrespecting the Flag” by ignoring the voice of the people of India, Rahul said the “PM is not the country”.
“There have been others in History who could only see their own perspective. Milosevic, the President of Yugoslavia used to salute the flag and talk of patriotism all day long. He broke the relationship between Serbs and Croats and destroyed his country. Nearer to us, Yahya khan claimed to defend the Pakistani flag. As a soldier he saluted the cloth every morning. He thought he was a patriot and refused to listen to his countrymen. He destroyed the relationship between the Punjabi and Bengali people and tore his country into two,” said Rahul. He accused the PM of “single-handedly destroying” six years of UPA work to put Pakistan into a small cage after 26/11 terror strikes, by visiting Pakistan.
“We talked to everyone – to the intelligence community, diplomats, even to the Opposition. In six years, we put Pakistan in a diplomatic cage. We made them a pariah nation and established that they were breeding terrorism. The work done by the UPA in Jammu and Kashmir has made us all proud. We had broken the back of insurgency in Kashmir completely,” he said.
One-time window “And what did the Prime Minister do? He decided to have a cup of tea with Nawaz Sharif without any vision. He decided to take a detour to Pakistan. Just like the Naga Accord. He did not bother to consult anyone...the people in intelligence, the diplomats. Perhaps he did not even talk to (External Affairs Minister) Sushmaji (Swaraj),” Rahul said.
Picking on the one-time compliance window announced Union in the Budget as a “Fair and Lovely” scheme, Gandhi said this was nothing but a move to turn the black money into white.