New Delhi, Nov 15: Congress President Sonia Gandhi has criticised Narendra Modi led National Democratic Alliance government in India saying it was using development as a buzzword to mask its communal agenda.
She said the people were being viciously attacked for holding different beliefs in the “prevalent atmosphere of intolerance”.
Gandhi also took on RSS without naming it, saying it actively opposed Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Quit India’ call in 1942 along with another group which was responsible for partition, a reference to Muslim League, and “so called nationalists” nowadays go around giving certificates on patriotism.
Speaking at the culmination of the year-long 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Jawaharlal Nehru, she said the first prime minister believed in a frank exchange of ideas when any citizen could speak his ‘Mann ki Baat’, which has now been “reduced” to a radio broadcast.
“Today, we are witnessing attempts by certain individuals and elements to whitewash their communal agenda in front of the world by hiding it behind the mask of development. Development is used as a buzzword, again and again,” she said.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who also spoke on the occasion, said when he is abroad, he says India is tolerant and government wants to take all sections together but he says nothing of this sort when he is in India.
Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said there are some forces in the country which want to spread confusion about Nehru’s role in building new India.
