(PTI)
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday tore into the “arrogant”, “power-drunk”, “dictatorial” BJP government, accusing it of using all means to destroy the opposition. In a hard-hitting 15-minute speech at the Congress plenary, Sonia Gandhi accused the Modi government of working to finish the Congress in the nearly four years of its rule. “In the last four years, to destroy the Congress, the arrogant and drunk-with-power Modi government has left no stone unturned. There is open play of allurement, money, repression and division (saam, daam, dand, bhed) but the Congress has never bowed to arrogance of power and will never bow in the future,” she said. “Rather, the Congress is putting up a struggle to expose the dictatorial ways of the Modi government, its neglect of Constitution, disrespect of Parliament, false cases against the opposition and its harassment of the media.”
She said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2014 slogans of ‘development for all’ and ‘no tolerance for graft’ were gimmicks to grab power. Sonia Gandhi asked party workers to stoutly face the challenges for its victory in the upcoming electoral battles and again make the Congress a party that sets the fundamental agenda of the country. Extending her good wishes to her son Rahul Gandhi, who took over as party chief in December, Sonia Gandhi said party workers will have to work unitedly and collectively under him for success in the face of “difficult struggles” facing the party.