NT NETWORK
PANAJI
“The country is now in a state of near paranoia ,” stated the Congress party on Saturday, while describing the main achievement of the Narendra Modi government, which completed two years in office on May 26, further pointing out that “the biggest fear that we have in this regime is democracy being calibrated to thwart the public voice; at times by covering the iron fist with a velvet cloth.”
National spokesperson of the Congress party Sanjay Jha, who was addressing a press conference at the Congress House in the city, in the presence of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Luizinho Faleiro said that the real four faces of Prime Minister Narendra Modi are visible through Gajendra Singh Rathore, who symbolised farmers and committed suicide; Mohammed Akhlaq, who was lynched by a mob in Dadri on the suspicion of having beef at his home; Rohith Vemula, a Dalit PhD student at the University of Hyderabad forced to commit suicide; and Kanhaiya Kumar, a student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University arrested on charge of sedition.
“These four faces clearly point out at the state of farmers in the country, the anti-Muslim attitude of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the anti-Dalit sentiments of the BJP, and the anti-youth approach of the party, respectively,” he added.
A book titled ‘Sachchai ka Aaina’ (The Mirror of Truth), that was also released on the occasion, refutes all claims of the Modi government as regards introducing maximum public welfare schemes during the two years of its rule.
The book provides factual figures taken from media reports as well as various agencies, which speaks about dismal failures of the Modi government in areas ranging from economy to agriculture and essential commodities to fuels.
Speaking further, Jha said that the Modi government has no right to organise the massive razzmatazz at the India Gate in New Delhi with Bollywood stars for celebrating its 2 years in power by squandering hard-earned money of the tax payers.
“India needs to be worried as it is in the hands of a government that is manipulating information and public sentiments, assuming that the people of the country will not comprehend the same,” Jha stated, maintaining that the Prime Minister has redefined corruption by stating that Chhattisgarh PDS scam, Madhya Pradesh Vyapam scam and Gujarat Krishna-Godavari basin scam are not linked to any corruption, besides giving clean chit to Maharashtra Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse and former Indian Premier League chairman Lalit Modi in spite of pending charges against them.
“And in the process, Modi has created a fish market of corruption in India,” he noted. Maintaining that Congress would be the single largest party to emerge victorious after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Jha observed that the election to the Goa legislative assembly scheduled in 2017 is an important election for his party, as it would be a manifestation of larger public mood.
“And we are going to bounce back to power in Goa,” he stressed.
Coming out strongly against the Modi government for leading an anti-Nehru, anti-Mahatma Gandhi campaign, the national spokesperson of Congress said that this is a brazen act of the government that is challenging the very ethos of India.
“It is nothing but a product of inner hate towards people, who stood for secular India,” he noted, observing that Modi distorts and destroys truth, and is disingenuous towards it, in turn obliterating history.
Jha also said that the Modi government lied about doubling the income of farmers in five years, as for reaching such a situation, the agriculture in the country needs to grow 12 per cent to 14 per cent per annum.
He further condemned the people in the BJP for launching tirade against Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan for his “anti-people policies,” stating that the RBI needs Rajan and not vice versa.
Replying to a question, Jha said that Goa was a paradise of India, but unfortunately a regressive mindset has emerged from the state administration, which includes talk about dress code on beach areas, endorsement of the act of the assassins of Mahatma Gandhi, and so on.
Criticising Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju for offering to set up an authority to deal with the cases pertaining to dual citizenship issues of many Goans vis-à-vis their birth registration at Lisbon’s central registry, president of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) Luizinho Faleiro said that all that such Goans need is a one-and-a-half line legislation to be enacted by the Parliament by putting a related cut-off date, so that those Goans who registered their birth in Portugal could be protected, as they had done so innocently without understanding its repercussions.
“Why is this talk about setting up an authority, what is Bharatiya Janata Party’s hidden agenda behind it and what is the party interested in knowing about,” he questioned, maintaining that the Modi government is unnecessarily complicating the issue instead of providing a simple solution.
Faleiro also pooh-poohed the decision of the Modi government to send its two ministers to Goa – Rijiju and Union Minister for Heavy Industries Anant Geete – for boasting about its performance during the past two years in power.
“The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had launched 18 flagship schemes including the MNREGA scheme, but we never tom-tomed about them,” he said, noting that it is the duty and responsibility of every elected government to govern the country by launching schemes and making policies. The GPCC chief also said that the people have now completely understood Modi as nothing more than a “good salesman” and an “excellent merchant of dreams,” but a “lousy achiever.”