NEW DELHI: Taking a cue from her son Rahul Gandhi, the Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government over its failure to fill some key posts.
In one of her rare speeches, Sonia accused Modi government of failing to keep its words on transparency and good governance deliberately.
“The PM in the election campaign made fraudulent promises about transparency and continues to do so. In a blatant U-turn, his government, through the absence of a chief information commissioner, has made sure that the highest offices are not accountable under the RTI [Right to Information] Act... Citizens no longer have the right to question the government,” Sonia said.
RTI Act was close to Sonia and the previous Congress party-led United Progressive Alliance government had brought it to bring in transparency. While it empowered citizens as they could seek information and answers, RTI Act failed to bring in transparency the way it was envisaged.
Sonia quoted the Modi government’s admission that over 39,000 appeals under RTI Act are pending. She termed the absence of the chief information officer as a deplorable lapse of the government. Besides the chief information officer, the post of Lokpal is also lying vacant as Modi government is set to complete one year in office later this month.
“Information delayed is information denied. The government is brutally weakening the RTI Act and shielding itself,” Sonia said and asked the Modi government to “match its words of fighting corruption with action”.
Sonia termed the delay in naming new chief information officer and Lokpal as deplorable. “Government has shown a deplorable lack of interest in punishing people responsible for delays in public services... Government is setting out to systematically subvert the functioning of the RTI Act,” Sonia said.
Sonia displayed her aggressive mood while addressing the Congress parliamentary party meeting earlier on Wednesday morning and criticised Modi’s famous “scam India to skill India” comment made during his recent visit to Canada.
“This outrageous remark on foreign soil belittles the dignity of the office he holds and is an embarrassment to the nation,” Sonia told her party lawmakers.
The mother-son duo of Sonia and Rahul is known for speaking rarely. While Sonia is more regular in attending sessions, Rahul Gandhi was rarely seen inside the House and spoke on very few occasions during his first 10 years as a parliamentarian.
However, he returned from a two-month sabbatical last month and has since become an aggressive and pro-active leader, speaking in the Lok Sabha on every available opportunity while trying to mobilise farmers and middle class home buyers in opposing some of the key pending legislations of the Modi government.
Rahul’s aggression seems to have rubbed off on his mother too as she appeared in an aggressive mood, her first since the Congress party suffered a humiliating defeat in last year’s general elections under charges of untamed scams during the Manmohan Singh government’s decade-old tenure at the helm.
Rahul Gandhi listened to his mother speak in the Lok Sabha Wednesday quietly but jumped to her defence outside and launched a fresh attack on Modi government while interacting with the media.
“Wherever the PM sees an institution that is constitutional, that people have faith in, he wants to end it as he wants all power with himself and corporates,” Rahul said, giving a new twist to his allegations that Modi government’s Land Acquisition Act is meant to help his corporate sector friends to grab lands of poor farmers.
