New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people Wednesday to think wisely before casting their vote and attacked the Congress, alleging that the grand old party believed in insulting institutions, including Parliament, judiciary, media and the armed forces, when it was in power.
“As you go to vote – remember the past and how one family’s desire for power cost the nation so greatly. If they could do it then, they can surely do it now,” he wrote on his blog.
He said eternal vigilance remains the price of liberty.
“Think wisely: From the press to parliament. From soldiers to free speech. From the constitution to the courts. Institutional insult is the Congress way,” he added.
“Everyone is wrong, only the Congress is correct,” he said, taking a dig at the principal opposition party.
He said his government has changed things as it puts institutions above everything else. “India has seen that whenever dynastic politics has been powerful, institutions have taken a severe beating,” he said.
He said the present Lok Sabha had a ‘phenomenal 85 per cent’ productivity.
“The nation knows the numerical dynamics of both houses. It is clear that when a non-dynasty party [has a] higher number, its tendency to work more is visible,” he said and asked which were the “forces disrupting the House and why.”
Referring to freedom of expression, he alleged dynastic parties have never been comfortable with a free and vibrant press.
“No wonder, the very first constitutional amendment brought in by the Congress government sought to curtail free speech. Speaking truth to power, which is the hallmark of a free press was seen as vulgar and indecent,” Modi wrote.
He pointed out that the UPA years saw the bringing of a law that could land you in prison for posting anything ‘offensive’.
“A tweet against the son of a powerful UPA minister could land innocent citizens in jail. Just a few days ago, the nation watched with horror when a few youngsters were arrested for expressing their true feelings at a programme in Karnataka, where the Congress is sharing power,” he said.
Modi said he wants to tell the Congress that ‘no amount of intimidation’ will change the ground realities. “Curbing freedom of expression will not change people’s poor impression of the party,” he continued.
Referring to Emergency, he said it was imposed to ‘safeguard’ the interests of a ‘dynasty’.
“The Congress has imposed Article 356 almost a hundred times, with Mrs. Indira Gandhi herself doing so about fifty times. If they did not like a state government or leader the government was dismissed,” he wrote.
Referring to the judiciary, he alleged that Congress’ contempt for courts ‘is anyway legendary’. “It was Mrs. Indira Gandhi who called for a ‘committed judiciary’, which seeks to make the courts more loyal to a family than to the Constitution,” he claimed.
PTI
