Team News Riveting
New Delhi, February 6
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday lashed out at the Congress during his address to Rajya Sabha and said the grand old party crushed the Freedom of Speech.
“Expecting ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ from Congress will be a huge mistake. It is beyond their thinking and it also doesn’t suit their roadmap because the whole party is dedicated only to one family,” Modi said. Asserting that the family first is on the top in Congress’s model, Modi said after 2014, India got an alternate model of governance and it was not focused on appeasement, but on satisfaction.
“During Congress tenure, there was appeasement in everything. It was their way of doing politics.” he said. He added, “It is well documented how much anger and hatred Congress had towards Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar. They never considered Baba Saheb worthy of the Bharat Ratna award. But today due to compulsions they are having to raise the slogan of ‘Jai Bheem’…”
He further added, “Today, attempts are being made to spread caste poison in the society…For many years, OBC MPs from all parties had been demanding constitutional status for the OBC Panel. But their demand was rejected, as it might not have suited their (Congress) politics. But we gave constitutional status to this panel.”
He also ripped into the Congress over the ‘Emergency’ imposed by late former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declaring his rivals had “crushed freedom of speech”, including barring Hindi films starring Dev Anand from being broadcast on Doordarshan.
“This country has also seen the period of ‘Emergency’ and how the spirit of the Constitution was crushed. It was done for the sake of power. The country knows this,” Modi said.
“During Nehruji’s tenure (as Prime Minister) a workers’ strike was held in Mumbai… famous poet Majrooh Sultanpuri recited a poem at this time. After this he was jailed. Famous actor Balraj Sahni was jailed because he participated in a protest. Hridaynath Mangeshkarji, brother of (iconic Hindi singer) Lata Mangeshkarji, wanted to sing a song about Veer Savarkar… but was banned from radio.”
