‘Millstone around India’s neck, presiding over murder of democracy’: Cong slams PM

Launching a fierce attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s longevity milestone, the Congress labeled him a "millstone" around India’s neck. Leaders Jairam Ramesh and Siddaramaiah accused his administration of undermining institutional structures and engineering political conspiracies in Rajya Sabha polls

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he may have passed a “self-proclaimed and dubiously invented” milestone but he is a “millstone” around India’s neck, presiding over the “murder of democracy”.

The opposition party’s attack came as Modi became India’s longest continuously serving elected prime minister.

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Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Jawaharlal Nehru became prime minister of India on August 15, 1947 presiding over a stellar Cabinet – the likes of which have rarely been seen in the world.

Over the next five years, modern India came into being, he said on X.

“Over 560 princely states were integrated peacefully into the Indian Union, the Constitution of India was debated and adopted, zamindari was abolished, reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes were put in place, a number of multipurpose irrigation-cum-power projects were launched, the infrastructure for science and technology capability was established (including in nuclear energy), and India emerged as a force in global affairs,” Ramesh said.

Electoral rolls bearing 170 million registered voters were prepared to ensure universal adult franchise and free India’s first General Elections were held between October 1951 and February 1952, he said.

“The 1947-52 record of achievements of India with Nehru as PM and in which stalwarts like Sardar Patel, Dr Ambedkar, Dr Rajendra Prasad, C Rajagopalachari, and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad played such a pivotal role is now sought to be erased by Mr Modi who has a pathological fixation on Nehru,” the Congress general secretary in-charge communications alleged.

“He (Modi) may have passed a self-proclaimed and dubiously invented milestone today but he is a millstone around India’s neck, presiding as he is over the Murder of Democracy in India,” Ramesh alleged.

The very same establishments of democracy — an independent Election Commission and a sacrosanct voter list — are now threatened, he claimed.

“Scientific temper has been erased through the destruction of our educational institutions as exposed most recently by the NEET-CBSE scandals. Reservations for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes have been weakened through privatisation and nefarious instruments like ‘Not Found Suitable’,” Ramesh said.

And while Nehru won in 1952, 1957, and 1962 with a hugely decisive majority, Modi “did not secure even a simple majority by a considerable margin in 2024 and had to hurriedly convene a NDA meeting bypassing the BJP Parliamentary Party to anoint himself as PM,” Ramesh said, adding that “2024 was most certainly not a mandate for him”.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said it is peak irony that on the day the BJP is celebrating Prime Minister Modi’s supposed long stay in power as a “cooked-up milestone” for Indian democracy, the election machinery under his watch has illegally rejected the nomination of Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan.

“This is the real condition of democracy under Modi. The rejection of Ms. Natarajan’s nomination is not a routine scrutiny decision. It is a blatant illegality and a clear political conspiracy,” he said.

“Despite having numbers to win only two Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh, the BJP first fielded a third candidate. It then tried horse-trading by offering huge money to Congress legislators. When those attempts started failing and Congress MLAs stood united, the BJP used the election machinery to directly reject the Congress candidate’s nomination,” the senior Congress leader alleged.

Modi on Wednesday became the longest continuously serving elected prime minister of India, breaking the record of Nehru.

Modi crosses the record of Nehru’s 4,399 days in power as an elected prime minister following the 1952 general elections. Nehru’s stint from 1947 to 1952 was as head of an interim government as elections were not held till 1952.

Former prime minister Indira Gandhi had a tenure of 14 years, more than that of Modi, but her prime ministership was not uninterrupted.

By surpassing Nehru’s 4,399-day record, Modi became the longest-serving elected prime minister of India.

On May 26, 2014, Modi took charge as India’s prime minister with a landslide victory. He got re-elected with a bigger mandate in 2019 and his second term began on May 30 of the same year. His third consecutive term started on June 9, 2024.