Congress accuses PM of lacking the courage to answer questions, of ‘sacrificing’ India’s farmers

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday launched a sharp attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his speech in the Rajya Sabha, accusing him of lacking the courage to answer questions raised by the Opposition and deliberately undermining democratic functioning of Parliament.

Kharge also questioned the Prime Minister’s claim that the Congress had insulted the Sikh community, questioning whether a conversation between two individuals was labelled as an insult to the Sikhs “The Congress party has always respected Sikhs. Under a Congress government, Dr. Manmohan Singh served as Finance Minister and later as Prime Minister,” he pointed out, adding, “Narendra Modi respects neither Sikhs, nor Dalits, nor Adivasis. His only concern is how to belittle others.”

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The Congress chief also took aim at Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who on Thursday said he had advised the Prime Minister not to attend the House amid intelligence inputs suggesting a possible inappropriate incident near the Speaker’s chair. “If your intelligence is so strong, where was it during terror attacks like Pulwama? Lynchings are happening across the country, and attacks on Dalits and Adivasis continue. Where does this intelligence disappear then,” he asked.

Kharge said repeated disruptions and the stalling of Parliament for days at a stretch reflected a failure of democracy and blamed the government for the ongoing deadlock in the Lok Sabha. Speaking to the media, he accused the Prime Minister of “repeating falsehoods” and said that during Modi’s 97-minute reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address, not a single issue raised by the Opposition was answered.

Referring to former Army Chief M.M.Naravane’s book, Kharge said the government’s denial of its existence in Parliament was misleading. “When we managed to access the book, how could those in power not have it? Ministers kept saying the book wasn’t published, but it does exist. The truth is that Narendra Modi does not have the courage to answer our questions,” he alleged.

Kharge also defended India’s public sector legacy, crediting Jawaharlal Nehru with laying its foundations. “At a time when nothing was manufactured in the country, the public sector stepped in. Instead of strengthening it, Modi has worked to dismantle it. He has no ideology and no vision for the country,” he said.

Claiming the Prime Minister’s “sparkle has faded,” Kharge accused the Prime Minister of avoiding Parliament out of fear of questions from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. “The truth is that over the past few days, Narendra Modi has been troubled because matters related to him have come up in the Epstein files. After that, Narendra Modi surrendered before Trump and struck a trade deal. He sacrificed the country’s farmers. Modi is making our people poor and making America’s farmers rich,” Kharge alleged, a day after Prime Minister Modi accused the Congress of insulting the President of India by resorting to disruptions in the Lok Sabha during the debate on her address.