PM Modi slams Cong ‘cancel’ culture, failure as Opp, predicts BJP sweep

The Prime Minister, who led the BJP to two resounding victories in the last two Lok Sabha elections, singled out the Congress for being responsible for the failure of the opposition and said he would return to power for a third term to set the tone for the country for the next 1000 years.

“I can gauge the mood of the nation, it will definitely give NDA more than 400 seats and the BJP at least 370 seats. And it’s not very far. At most, 100-125 days are remaining,” he said. “Abki baar,” Modi said to the chants of his MPs, “ab ki baar 400 paar.”

“For several decades you were sitting here (in the Treasury benches), but now you have resolved to stay there (opposition benches) for several decades,” Modi told the Opposition. “The people will bless you and keep you there. You will achieve greater heights and will be soon seen in the public galleries (of the House),” he added.

Modi said that many in the opposition have “lost the courage” to fight elections so some are trying to change their seats while others want to come to Parliament via Rajya Sabha.

Identifying dynasty politics, corruption and failure in governance as the Congress’s principal ghosts of the past, he blamed the party for the plight of the opposition. “It was a time when the country needed constructive opposition… But the Congress has failed to be a good opposition and it did not let other parties also to become one. The party did not let other bright leaders to come up. The Congress has done so much damage to itself, the opposition, Parliament and the country,” Modi said.

This sharp attack comes as the Congress tries to cobble a coalition against the Modi-led BJP, an effort that has threatened to unravel with Nitish Kumar, one of its prime architects, crossing over to the BJP and TMC’s Mamata Banerjee raising her pitch against the party.

Modi said dynasty politics has destroyed the Congress and its leaders. “We can see the situation of Adhir Babu (Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury)… parivar vaad mein seva to karni padti hai… (In dynasty politics, one has to serve the family). The situation is that (Mallikarjun) Kharge has shifted from this House to that House (Rajya Sabha), and Ghulam Nabi Azad has shifted out of the party. They all became the victims of “parivarwad.”

Modi drew a distinction between dynasty politics of Opposition parties and those from the same family in the BJP. “If more than one person in a family, on their own strength and with the support of the public, makes progress in the political field, we have never called it dynastic politics. We call it dynastic politics when a party is run by a family, when the party prioritises members of a family, when family members take all the important decisions of the party,” he added.

“Neither Amit Shah nor Rajnath Singh has a political party,” he said. To counter the dynasty charge, the Opposition often cite Shah’s son Jay Shah heading cricket body BCCI and Singh’s son Pankaj Singh being an MLA in Uttar Pradesh.

Flagging what he called the Congress’s politics of negativism, Modi said: “Congress is trapped in cancel culture, it seeks to cancel every achievement and success of the country…We say Make in India, Congress says cancel; we say Atmanirbhar Bharat, Congress says cancel; we say Vocal For Local, Congress says cancel; we say Vande Bharat train, Congress says cancel; we say new Parliament building, Congress says cancel. I am surprised because these are not Modi’s achievements, these are the achievements of the country.”

The Prime Minister said his third term would witness India becoming the third largest economy in the world. He quoted the interim budget speech of former finance minister P Chidambaram in 2014 in which he had said that the country’s GDP would become the third highest in 30 years.

Referring to the Congress’s counter that this ranking was inevitable and had little to do with this Government, Modi said: “They even lost the capacity to dream, let alone resolve. They said it will take 30 years. Now I’m saying the country will reach the third position. I have led the country to the fifth position.. You should be happy about it.. But what illness has gripped you?”

Modi said that what the BJP had done in 10 years in a range of development works from housing for the poor to sanitation to electrification would have taken decades and generations under Congress regimes.

Referring to two speeches from the past, Modi argued that both Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi had a very poor opinion of the capability of Indians. “Let me read out what Nehru said from the Red Fort on Independence Day,” said Modi. “He said, ‘Indians are not used to working hard. We don’t work as hard as people in Europe or Japan or China or Russia do. These communities have become prosperous through their hard work and intelligence.’ So, Nehru was giving certificates to other countries, while looking down on Indians. He thought Indians were lazy and lacking in intelligence. Indira’s beliefs were no different,” Modi said in Hindi.

The Prime Minister then quoted Indira as having said: “Unfortunately, when a good task is about to be completed, we get complacent, and when a difficulty arises, we lose hope. Sometimes, the entire country seems to have accepted a defeatist attitude.’”

“Looking at the people in Congress today, it seems that Indiraji could not assess the people of the country correctly but assessed Congress absolutely correctly… I have confidence in the strength of the people of India.”

With the Opposition accusing the Centre of misusing its investigating agencies, Modi said that the agencies, which are independent and autonomous, were acting against corruption. “Whoever wants to blame me, keep doing that. I will keep taking action against corruption. I am assuring the people of India that I will not let anyone loot this country and those who have looted will have to return it.”

The Prime Minister ridiculed the opposition INDIA bloc, which he had once termed as Ghamandia, an alliance of arrogance. “A few days ago, they put together a ‘Bhanumati ka Kunba (Bhanumati’s clan, meaning a rag-tag group of disparate people)’ but then they started ‘Ekla chalo re (Walk alone)’,” he said in an apparent reference to TMC leader Mamata Banerjee’s announcement that she would not share any seats with the Congress or Left in West Bengal.