Samvidhan not Sangh ka vidhan, fear spreading, learn from 1975: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

Speaking immediately after Union Defence Minister and BJP senior leader Rajnath Singh listed the excesses of the Emergency and attacked the Congress and her family, she told the government to learn from it and apologise for its mistakes.

“My friends there were saying this and that happened in 1975 (the imposition of Emergency). Toh seekh leejiye na aap bhi (so you also learn a lesson). You also apologise for your mistakes,” she said. She asked the government to return to elections through ballot papers and then see what happens.

Countering Singh’s remarks about dismissals of elected governments during Congress rule, she sought to know whether the present government had not tried to break parties in Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh to come to power.

“Who tried to break Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh governments through money? The people know that they (BJP) have a washing machine. Whoever goes there gets washed. I can see some former friends who are there. Perhaps they have been washed,” she said, accusing the BJP of engineering defections.

Responding to Singh’s assertion that it was the Modi government that had paved the way for women’s reservation to become a future reality, Vadra asked, “Why are you not implementing the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam? Why wait for 10 years? Will women wait for 10 years?”

Calling for a caste census, she said, “People want a caste census to know what is the situation of which group, so that policies can be made accordingly. When the Opposition demanded this before the Lok Sabha polls, their response was that the buffalo and mangalsutra would be stolen. This is their level of seriousness.”

Acknowledging that Singh had earlier asked for a blueprint on the way ahead if a caste census is done, she said even this statement sprang from the jolt the ruling party got in the Lok Sabha polls.

She claimed that had the BJP secured a full majority in the Lok Sabha elections, it would have changed the Constitution, but was now talking about the Constitution because it knew people wouldn’t tolerate any change.

Taking forward her brother Rahul Gandhi’s charge that the government was working for an industrialist, she said, “Farm laws are being made for big industrialists. From Wayanad to Lalitpur, farmers are crying. They have been abandoned. In Himachal, all laws are being made for big industrialists. Everything is being changed for one person… (the name of the person she mentioned was expunged) has been given all cold storages by your government, not by the state governments.

All businesses, resources, wealth, opportunity, seaports, airports, roads, railway work, factories, mines, government companies are being given to one man.”

Asserting that the Constitution was anchored in the freedom struggle, she said, “We have a proud tradition of debate and discussion for thousands of years, and in our various religions. Our freedom struggle sprang from this. It was a unique non-violent struggle. The freedom struggle was very democratic. Different sections of society — whatever their religion, caste or language — took part in this struggle.”

“I have seen this flame flicker across the country. In Unnao, I went to the home of a rape victim who was burnt alive. I met her father. His farms had been torched. He was also beaten up. He told me she wanted justice. Her police complaints were turned down. She kept fighting her battle alone. The courage to fight is what women got from our Constitution,” she said.

She also related the story of the struggle for justice of the widow of a Dalit man beaten to death by police in Agra, and the son of a Muslim barber who succumbed to a police bullet in Sambhal wanting to become a doctor to fulfil his dream, saying that the Constitution was the source of their courage in adversity.

Calling the Constitution a suraksha kavach (shield), she said, “It’s sad that our treasury benches have tried to break this suraksha kavach. The Constitution promises economic, social and political justice. Through lateral entries, they have been undoing the Constitution. Had they got the majority in Lok Sabha, they would have changed the Constitution. They are talking about it because of the election results.”

Referring to what she called the atmosphere of fear spread by the government, Vadra said, “People of the country protested openly for 75 years when they were angered. Never did debate stop. Today, people are made to fear speaking the truth. Be it journalists, Opposition leaders, professors or student leaders, they are not spared. ED and CBI are used against people. People are put in jail, including political leaders. They have filled the country with fear.”

“I want to remind the House that such fear was rampant during British rule. When people of the ideology of Gandhi sitting on this side were fighting for independence, those on the side of the other ideology were afraid and colluding with the British,” she said, underlining, “It is nature’s law that those who spread fear stay in fear. They are scared of discussion, of criticism. We have been asking for a discussion for days now, but they don’t have the courage. Even kings in olden days used to quietly go out in disguise to figure out what people thought about them. While the present king loves to disguise himself, he doesn’t have the courage to listen to the people or face criticism.”

She said the country could not be run by fear for long, and that it could only be run by courage. “When someone is oppressed so much that eventually he feels he has nothing to lose, the fear disappears… ,” she said.

She said that in her first 15 days in Parliament, she had seen the Prime Minister in the House for only 10 minutes.

“The PM holds the Constitution to his head, but is not bothered about Manipur or Hathras. Perhaps he does not understand that the Samvidhan is not Sangh ka vidhan. Millions of Indians have mutual love, not hatred,” she said.

She also took potshots at the BJP for its recurrent attacks on Jawaharlal Nehru, saying, “You talk about the past, what Nehru did or did not do. Talk about the present. What are you doing? What is your responsibility? Or is all responsibility always Nehru’s?”

She then referred to Nehru’s contribution: “The one whose name you avoid taking, and sometimes take to save yourself, he built HAL, BHEL, SAIL, GAIL, ONGC, NTPC, IIT, IIM and many PSUs. His name can be erased from books and speeches but his contribution to the country’s Independence and to building it can never be erased.”

She also commended Indira Gandhi for the nationalisation of banks in 1969.