UPA CHAIRPERSON Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government, accusing them of betraying the people by not fulfilling the promises made to them. Sonia said a storm of change is in the offing as she accused the government of weakening the foundations of the Constitution and destroying the country’s Ganga-Jamuni culture. She also alleged that corruption had taken “deeper roots” since the BJP came to power. Addressing the Congress’s Jan Aakrosh Rally at Ramlila ground, Sonia said the people of the country are facing severe hardships. And every section — be it the youth, farmers, working class, traders, Dalits, tribals, backwards and minorities — is impatient as they fear for their future. READ | Modi govt’s style of functioning poses threat to democracy, says Manmohan Singh She accused the government of not fulfilling the promise of creating two crore jobs a year and said the country’s economy is in a shambles. She also said the government was weakening constitutional institutions. Read | Congress will win every election from now, emerge victorious in 2019, says Rahul Gandhi Sonia made a reference to the “serious crisis” that had gripped the top judiciary, saying this never happened before. She accused the government of muzzling dissenting voices and dividing society with an eye on elections. She said the entire country was passing through a violent phase and added that falsehood, hatred and violence were ruling the roost instead of truth, love and non-violence. Taking on the Prime Minister over corruption, she said, “What happened to Modiji’s pet slogan of Na khaunga, na khane dunga. the roots of corruption have become deeper under his watch.” “This government has not left any stone unturned in weakening constitutional institutions. Political rivals are being targeted through government agencies. The media is being stopped from playing its rightful role.. All this is being done at the behest of an organisation, which follows a certain mindset,” she said in a veiled attack on the RSS. “Under the leadership of Rahul, we should take a vow to fight Modi and his people who are weakening the foundations of the Constitution for their political interests. We will fight those who are imposing their will and not the law of the land. We will fight those who want to annihilate our Ganga-Jamuni culture,” she said. “Under the leadership of Rahul, we will with all our might fight against the directionless and anti-people Modi government, which has betrayed the people by making false promises.” In his address, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said it was time for the Modi government to give an account of its performance. The government, he said, has not been successful in fulfilling any of the promises it made to the people. It failed to provide adequate price to the farmers for their produce and waive off their debt. The BJP government, he said, is anti-farmer. He said there is a mood of pessimism all around. Unemployment is on the rise and so are prices of essential commodities. Law and order situation is bad as atrocities against minorities, Dalits and women are rising. He said the manner in which the government is functioning poses a threat to democracy and referred to disruption of Parliament to avoid taking up of the no-confidence motion moved by the opposition. He said constitutional institutions are being insulted. “Today such an atmosphere is being created where the Constitutional institutions are being insulted. I talked about the manner in which Parliament was not allowed to function and how the Budget was passed,” he said. Referring to the banking scam, he said this will affected the “health of our banks”.
