Modi is being 'dictatorial': Sonia and Rahul Gandhi hit out at PM

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday came under strident attack from Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, who accused him of being “dictatorial” and using the smokescreen of development to mask communal agenda. Castigating the ruling dispesnation over a number of incidents like Dadri lynching and burning of Dalit children in Haryana amid the raging debate on intolerance, Sonia, Rahul and other top leaders tried to put the Modi dispensation on the mat. Training her guns on the Prime Minister, the Congress president said,“Simply because someone holds a different view or disagrees, they cannot be branded a traitor. This is neither the way of our democracy nor a form of patriotism. It is a form of dictatorship.” [caption id=“attachment_2506638” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo. Image courtesy: PTI[/caption] “Today, we are witnessing attempts by certain individuals and elements to whitewash their communal agenda in front of the world by hiding it behind the mask of development.” “Development is used as a buzzword, again and again. It is ironic that they speak of development yet fail to learn from the legacy and lessons of the man synonymous with laying the foundation of India’s growth-Nehruji,” she said. Attacking the Prime Minister, Rahul Gandhi said when he is abroad, he says India is tolerant and government wants to take all sections together but he says nothing of this sort when he is in India. “The prime minister is silent when Dalit children are killed in Haryana or when someone is killed in the name of religion in Dadri,” he said. Accusing Modi, BJP and RSS of practising unilateralism, Rahul said the prime minister does not take interest in Parliament and though the Opposition raises issues neither he nor his government bother to respond, which is in stark contrast to the respect shown by Nehru to his opponents. Alleging that people were being viciously attacked for holding different beliefs in the “prevalent atmosphere of intolerance”, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accused Modi of promoting himself by harping on the issue of development. An unusally aggressive former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said, “Our Prime Minister talks of development. Wherever he goes, he tries to promote himself in the name of development.” He was was greeted with loud cheers. The attack on Modi came at the concluding ceremony of the 125th birth anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, which also saw repeated reference by party leaders to the poll victory of the grand alliance in Bihar. In significant remarks, Rahul complimented party workers for the victory in Bihar saying “you in alliance with Nitish and Lalu have given a massive jolt to the ideology of BJP and RSS. We are going to do the same elswwhere in the country.” The refrain of Sonia, Rahul as also of Manmohan Singh was that there is a conscious attempt by the NDA dispensation to undermine the legacy of Nehru. Rahul said the Prime Minster’s approach is always that the Opposition does not understand anything. “They believe that they know everything and nobody else. Had it been so, there would have been achche din.” He also said that the BJP, RSS and Modi believe in unilateralism in an arrangement in which all speak in one voice and there is no place for a divergent opinion. Hailing the contribution of Nehru in strengthening the roots of democracy, he said those who want to put roadblocks in it could never be the rightful claimant of Indian democratic tradition. PTI