IF THERE were any doubts that the BJP, which has come to power well short of a majority, and the Opposition would have smoother relations in this Parliament, these were settled during the debate on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address. While Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s attacks on the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were met with an uproar inside and outside the House by the BJP, followed by the expunction of large parts of his speech by the Speaker, Modi himself led a no-holds-barred counter in his reply to the Motion. After a nearly 2.5 hours reply in the Lok Sabha Tuesday, he gave his reply in the Rajya Sabha Wednesday. If the thrust of his take-down in the Lower House was that the Congress was "anti-Hindu", he branded it "anti-Dalit" in the Upper House. In both Houses, the PM countered the Opposition’s attacks on his government over posing “a threat to the Constitution” – proof that the BJP wants to stall any chance of the Opposition gaining advantage on this count, as it did in the recent elections. Modi also sought to drive a rift between the Congress and its INDIA allies, warning them in the Lok Sabha that the Congress was a “parjeevi (parasite)” feeding on them. Over paper leaks and the Manipur crisis, the two issues on which the Opposition has been mounting an attack on the Modi government, the PM remained on the offensive. * Congress as ‘anti-Hindu’, ‘anti-Dalit’ Seizing on the opening provided by Rahul Gandhi’s remarks referring to Hinduism in the context of the BJP, PM Modi – who had made a rare intervention when the LoP was speaking – took the Congress leader on at length in his reply to the Motion of Thanks. Referring to Gandhi’s speech, Modi said: “People of the country will never forgive what happened… Hindus are tolerant as a community. That is why we have a democracy and such diversity… It was said that Hindus are violent. Are these your values?. Is this your hatred for the Hindus of the country?” Modi went on to refer to other statements by Congress leaders earlier, which have been described by the BJP in the past as reflective of the party’s “anti-Hindu” character. The PM’s remarks were significant given that both inside the House and outside, the Congress and ally and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav have been underlining that the BJP failed to win from Faizabad, a seat which covers Ayodhya, months after inaugurating the Ram Temple there. The new Faizabad MP, Awadhesh Prasad, occupies pride of place – and the front row – on the Opposition’s side of the aisle. In the Rajya Sabha, where the Congress’s LoP is Mallikarjun Kharge, its most prominent Dalit face and party chief, Modi questioned the Congress’s caste credentials. With the BJP smarting at the INDIA’s claims against it of being against SCs, STs and OBCs, and of its leaders holding the Constitution up as they took oath, the PM said that for the Congress, Dalit leaders such as Kharge were dispensable fall guys. “He (Kharge) stood up as a wall so that the blame of the (Lok Sabha elections) defeat does not go where it should (to the Gandhi family). The Congress has had this tradition – a Dalit is propped up to take the blame for the defeat, and the family escapes. They did the same for the Speaker’s contest (the party’s senior Dalit MP K Suresh was the INDIA candidate for the post),” Modi said, accusing the Congress of “insulting” former President Ram Nath Kovind and current President Droupadi Murmu. * Emergency as counter to Constitution narrative Modi, who in his first address outside Parliament after the results, invoked the Emergency, continued in the same vein in his reply on the Motion of Thanks. “They (the Congress) said that this was the first election where the Constitution was the main issue. Have they forgotten that the 1977 (post-Emergency) elections were fought to save democracy and the Constitution – and that voters at the time showed that democracy flows in their veins?” he said. He underlined that the BJP had hardly been defeated on these grounds despite the INDIA narrative. “Even if this election was about protecting the Constitution, the voters found us capable of it,” Modi said, adding: “You (the Congress) have sinned, the word Constitution does not suit you… The Congress is the biggest opponent of the Constitution.” On other “infringements” of the Constitution by the Congress, Modi talked about the role performed by the high-powered National Advisory Council, headed by Sonia Gandhi, under the UPA government, “when Khargeji was in the Cabinet”, and referred to the tearing up of a government ordinance by Rahul Gandhi at the time (he did not name Gandhi). For the Congress, one family came above the Constitution, Modi said. * Underlining ‘clear mandate’ With the crux of the Opposition’s attack being that the BJP that talked of 370-plus seats had been reduced to 240, Modi time and again reminded that what the party led by him had achieved in returning to power for the third time was “historic”. “After Independence, this has happened the second time, and after 60 years.” He also talked of the state elections held simultaneously which the NDA had won, after registering victories six months ago in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and mentioned the states where the BJP had made inroads. “There are polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand soon. We got more votes in these three in these Lok Sabha elections than we got in the Assembly polls there,” he said. On the contrary, the PM said, the mandate the Congress had received was to “sit in the Opposition and keep shouting when you lose all logic”. In this context too, he attacked Rahul Gandhi, mocking his new-found authority as the LoP by referring to him as “baalak buddhi (infantile)”, and questioning the logic of his attacks. * INDIA’s ‘unnatural’ alliance The PM pointed out that many of the leaders who were now Congress allies in the INDIA bloc had suffered under its rule during the Emergency. “This is opportunism. Had they respected the Constitution, they would not have done so.” Referring to incidents of high-handedness during the Emergency such as in Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh and Turkman Gate in Delhi, he asked how parties such as the SP and RJD which swore by minorities could stand with the Congress. “They are hiding their dark deeds behind the act of holding up the Constitution.” The PM went on to talk about the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party’s relationship, saying that while it was the Congress in Delhi that had first accused AAP leaders of corruption, it had begun to abuse him when they were sent to jail. In the Lok Sabha, Modi said the Congress had a “parasitic” role vis-a-vis its allies: “. The parasite eats the body in which it resides. I say this on the basis of facts. Wherever there was a direct contest with the BJP, or where the Congress was the major party, the strike rate of the Congress was only 26%. But where they allied as a junior partner, their strike rate was 50%.” Modi’s attempt was clearly to play on the fault lines within INDIA, which is hoping to continue its alliance into the coming elections. * Manipur, paper leaks, ‘misuse’ of agencies: ‘Don’t do politics’ Accused by the Opposition of using Central agencies to target rival parties, Modi talked about what happened under the Congress. “In 2013, Mulayam Singh Yadav said it is not easy to fight against the Congress, as it will put you in jail… I want to ask (senior SP MP) Ram Gopal Yadav, did Netaji lie? Please tell your nephew (Akhilesh Yadav) who unleashed the CBI on him when he entered politics. The CPI(M)’s Prakash Karat said in 2013 that the Congress misused agencies against political opponents. That the CBI is a caged pigeon was said by the Supreme Court in UPA days,” Modi said. On the other hand, he said, “I am fighting corruption as a mission and conviction – not for political purposes.” On the allegations made against his government by the Opposition over the leak of exam papers, Modi said they were “sacrificing an important matter at the altar of politics”. “I assure the youth that the government will not spare the culprits… We have also made a tough law for it.” He earlier promised strict action on the issue in the Lok Sabha. On the Manipur issue, Modi stepped up his counter-attack from his address in the Lok Sabha to the one in the Rajya Sabha. The Congress deployed its Manipur MPs to stand right in front of the PM and shout slogans during his Lok Sabha speech, while the Opposition staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha over the issue while he was speaking. Countering the Opposition’s claims that he was ignoring the state, Modi said: “Regarding Manipur, I spoke in detail in the last session. The government is committed to making the situation peaceful there… The state and Centre are trying their best to talk to everyone to restore peace. Previous governments have not done so.” Modi also pointed to the record of Congress-led Central governments in the state. “Let the Congress not forget that President’s rule was imposed 10 times in Manipur… We haven’t done the same.”
