Modi ‘lives in history’, misled RS by distorting facts: Kharge

The leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha also accused PM Modi of only blaming the Congress in his 90-minute address.

In the hands of the present government, the “country’s future is dark”, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on Thursday, as he slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his speech in the Rajya Sabha, wondering how can a person who “just lives in history” build the present and the future.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. (Sansad Tv)

The leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha also accused PM Modi of only blaming the Congress in his 90-minute address instead of talking about issues like unemployment, inflation and falling private investment.

“How can a person who just lives in history build the present and the future? In the hands of this government, the country’s future is dark,” Kharge said in a long post in Hindi on X.

He added: “Instead of talking about unemployment, inflation, economic inequality, recession, falling rupee, falling private investment and the failed ‘Make in India’, Modi ji kept cursing the Congress.”

The Congress chief further alleged that instead of talking about schemes for Dalits, tribals, backward classes, minorities and the poor, the PM tried to mislead the House “by distorting historical facts”.

His comments came minutes after PM Modi, while replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address in the Rajya Sabha, accused the Congress of practising appeasement politics to get votes, alleging that its priority was “family first” and its policies had been focused around it. Modi also attacked the previous Congress-led regimes for its tardy implementation of development projects.

During Modi’s address, Congress members tried to demand that the PM authenticate his claims on historical facts.

In a bid to counter Modi’s allegations involving the history of the Congress, Kharge said the first amendment to the Constitution was made by the Jawaharlal Nehru government “so that reservation could be given to backward classes and landlordism could be abolished”.

“Through this amendment, the 9th Schedule was added to the Constitution, land reforms took place and landlordism was abolished. Through this amendment, Article 15 (4) was added to the Constitution, due to which SCs, STs, and later OBCs could get reservation in employment and education,” he said.

Countering PM’s allegation that the Congress disrespected Babasaheb BR Ambedkar, Kharge said: “Congress made its member MR Jayakar resign from Mumbai to bring Baba Saheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar to the Constituent Assembly. He became the country’s first law minister in Pandit Nehru’s government. Congress party wanted Baba Saheb to reach Rajya Sabha with respect, it helped him in this.”

The Congress chief alleged that Ambedkar “himself wrote a letter and revealed that SA Dange and Savarkar were responsible for his defeat.”

Defending the former prime ministers from his party, Kharge said: “The truth is that the Congress itself did liberalisation. This work started with Indira Gandhi ji and was completed by Rajiv Gandhi ji, PV Narasimha Rao ji and Dr Manmohan Singh ji, the result of which is that today India is connected to the world economy and we have created the middle class.”

He alleged that Modi’s Rajya Sabha speech showed “he has accepted his mistake of deceiving the country”.

“Today people’s savings have ended due to inflation. There is huge discontent among the youth due to unemployment. The GDP growth rate is the lowest in four years. Rupee is at its weakest,” Kharge said.

“Countries of the world are trapping us in Tariff War but the government has no policy. Those who are rich are leaving the country. Forget about SMART Cities, our cities are no longer liveable. Every day democracy and the Constitution are being violated. There is no concrete preparation or policy for AI (artificial intelligence), EV (electric vehicles), R&D (research and development), innovation and Fourth Industrial Revolution for the youth,” Kharge said.

But efforts are being made to feed false history to the youth, he alleged. “I want to warn the youth of the country not to fall prey to Modi ji’s lies. Read the country’s history and avoid RSS propaganda.”