Enforced silence, dismantling pillars of democracy: Sonia Gandhi attacks Centre

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi trained her guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government in an editorial she wrote for The Hindu newspaper.

In the piece titled ‘An enforced silence cannot solve India’s problems’, Sonia said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statements “either ignore the most pressing, vital issues of the day, or are platitudes and verbal gymnastics to gloss over or distract from these issues.”

‘DISMANTLING PILLARS OF DEMOCRACY’
She also said the PM Modi-led government at the Centre is “systematically dismantling all three pillars of India’s democracy.” She mentioned the recent disruptions in Parliament and alleged a “government-led strategy” to disrupt sessions and “prevent the Opposition from raising issues” like “unemployment, inflation and social divisions, discussing the year’s Budget and the Adani scam”.

She said the central government was forced to resort to “unprecedented measures” to counter a “determined Opposition”. Here, Sonia Gandhi touched on Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP and parts of his speech getting expunged from parliamentary records.

Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP after a Surat court convicted him and sentenced him to two years in jail in a defamation case against him for his “all thieves have Modi surname” remark.

Sonia Gandhi implied that these were distractions to pass the Union Budget 2023 which envisaged an expenditure of around Rs 45 lakh crore. “As a result, the Budget of 45 lakh crore of rupees of people’s money was passed without any debate,” wrote Sonia Gandhi in her editorial for The Hindu.

She further added that “the Prime Minister was busy inaugurating projects in his constituency with widespread media coverage when the Finance Bill was rammed through the Lok Sabha”.

‘MISUSING CENTRAL AGENCIES’
Sonia Gandhi also brought out the Opposition’s charge that the government is “misusing” central probe agencies and said that “over 95 percent of political cases (are) filed only against Opposition parties”, further adding that the cases against those who join the BJP “miraculously evaporating”.