New Delhi: Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday lashed out at the Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, asking him to learn selfless service from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while criticising the INDIA bloc for protesting against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar.
Earlier in the day, the INDIA bloc MPs launched a protest march towards the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters, demanding the resignation of the CEC.
However, the opposition leaders were stopped by security personnel midway.
Speaking to reporters, the Union Minister Rijiju termed the protests as “drama”.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Rijiju said: “Every day, the Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi and his colleagues keep creating this drama and attacking the Election Commission and the Supreme Court. It is time to stop this. This drama has been going on continuously since 2014. How long will this continue?”
“In a democracy, serve the people and you will receive their mandate. If you are unable to secure a mandate, you abuse the Election Commission. And when the Supreme Court asks you to apologise, you later attack the Supreme Court as well and say that you do not have faith in the court. You call the Election Commission and the government as thieves. This will neither strengthen democracy nor lead to the revival of the Congress Party,” he added.
Targeting LoP Gandhi, Rijiju said: “I want to especially tell Rahul Gandhi, learn from PM Modi and learn from BJP workers, who continuously and selflessly work not for themselves but for the society and the country. You should also do the same. Stop this drama. If you continue serving the people, they will trust you. Continuing with this drama will not help.”
The Union Minister also hit out at the Congress for the imposition of the ‘Emergency’ during former Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi’s government.
“The Congress Party got an opportunity to rule this country for 55 years, and during that period, it imposed Emergency for two years. During the Emergency, the Preamble of the Constitution was changed. This is the character of the Congress Party. And today, they talk about democracy?” he said.
Kiren Rijiju “requested” the Congress and party MP Rahul Gandhi to “stop promoting the narrative of anti-India forces”.
“Foreign forces constantly push narratives to weaken India, defame the country’s constitutional institutions and mislead citizens… at least Congress should refrain from supporting such forces,” he said.
Reiterating that the Opposition should now stop its “drama”, Rijiju added: “The people are fed up of this drama, they don’t want to see this. The country has now changed, we are moving towards ‘Viksit Bharat’…now no one can become a Prime Minister just by taking birth in a particular family. The youth of the country are with PM Modi to work towards achieving the vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’.”
“If the Congress really wants to achieve a mandate, instead of creating narratives on social media, it should rather perform ‘Seva’ (service),” he said.
“I myself have served people in villages while being in the Opposition for 25 years,” Rijiju added while asserting that today the entire country has come together to achieve PM Modi’s vision of ‘Viksit Bharat’.
“The people of the country are today standing with PM Modi and NDA and no one will come to support the ‘drama’ created by Rahul Gandhi and his company,” he said.
(IANS)
