Kharge accuses Modi government of event management over achievements

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government, accusing them of relying on event management and manufactured narratives. He also challenged the BJP's claims regarding Modi's tenure and alleged failures on jobs, inflation and economic promises

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his criticism of the opposition party, saying “distorting history” does not change the truth and that the NDA government has only “event management and manufactured narratives” in the name of achievements.

Kharge alleged that in the last 12 years, the Modi government has done nothing but engage in sloganeering while keeping the people of the country trapped in a web of inflation, unemployment and corruption.

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“Distorting history does not change the truth. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was India’s longest-serving prime minister. He also held the record for the longest continuous tenure as prime minister. Smt. Indira Gandhi served the second-longest term.

“Now, the BJP has to invent a new and ridiculous category just to prove who has been the ‘longest-serving prime minister continuously since the first general elections of independent India’!” Kharge said in a post on X in Hindi.

“Do remind the country of this as well — In whose cabinet was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel the deputy prime minister? In whose cabinet was Babasaheb Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar the law minister? In whose cabinet did Dr Syama Prasad Mukherjee serve as a minister?” he said.

In 12 years, the Modi government has done nothing but engage in sloganeering while keeping the people of the country trapped in a web of inflation, unemployment and corruption, he alleged.

On every single front — providing 2 crore jobs annually, doubling farmers’ income, making India a USD 5 trillion economy, Make in India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, bullet train by 2023, GST, demonetisation and education policy — there has been “nothing but propaganda, failure and a betrayal of public trust”, Kharge said.

Now, all this government has is “event management and manufactured narratives” in the name of achievements, he said.

His remarks came after Modi attacked the Congress, saying the sluggish economic growth during its rule was cunningly dubbed the “Hindu Growth Rate” when it should have been called the “Congress Growth Rate” due to a complete absence of governance.

Modi also said a big success of the 12 years of NDA rule since 2014 was that it freed the country from the Congress’ “vicious trap” and asserted that the people of the country had understood the importance of political stability and decisive governance.

In his 37-minute speech, largely focused on his government’s achievements in the last 12 years and his vision for a ‘Viksit Bharat’, Modi said the dream of a ‘Viksit Bharat’ did not belong to a person or any party but had become the resolve of every person in the country.

Attacking the Congress, he said the party had plunged the country into an abyss of “helplessness, destitution and an inferiority complex” during its rule.

“The nation was conditioned to believe that development in India inevitably moves at a slow pace and rapid growth was simply not possible here. With great cunningness, this sluggish growth was labelled the ‘Hindu Growth Rate’, implying that while the style, responsibility and failure were all the Congress’, the stigma was pinned on the country’s vast Hindu population,” Modi said.

“It should have been named ‘Congress Growth Rate’. This ‘Congress Growth Rate’ was characterised by a complete absence of governance, policy, intent and decisiveness,” the prime minister said.

It was under Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s leadership that the NDA government first came to power, and only then did the country get a glimpse of what accelerated development looked like, Modi said.

“Unfortunately, in 2004, the country was once again caught in a cycle of instability,” he said, referring to the Congress-led UPA rule from 2004 to 2014.

Congratulatory messages from world leaders, a standing ovation at a meeting of the Union Cabinet, and puja-aarti by BJP leaders across the country marked Modi reaching the milestone of becoming the longest continuously serving elected prime minister on Wednesday.

Modi crossed the record of Jawaharlal Nehru’s 4,398 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 until 1952.