Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks on President’s address in Lok Sabha, PM Modi said that Congress and Gandhi family “never trusted India’s potential”.
“The Congress got stuck in one family. They could never see and would never be able to see people’s aspirations and achievements. The Congress never trusted India’s potential. They always considered themselves rulers and belittled people,” PM Modi said.
PM Modi recalled an Independence Day speech made by Nehru in 1959.
“Nehru had said ‘we [Indians] do not work as hard the Europeans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians or the Americans. Do not think that these communities became prosperous by some magic. They have achieved this by hardwork and smartness’.”
“He (Nehru) is giving a certificate to those people to belittle Indians. This shows that Nehru ji’s thinking about Indians was that they are lazy and of low intelligence. He did not trust their potential,” the prime minister said.
PM Modi added that Nehru’s daughter, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, did not think differently either.
“Indira ji had said from (the ramparts of) Red Fort, ‘Unfortunately, it is our habit that when a good work is approaching completion, we become complacent. And when an obstacle comes, we lose hope. Sometimes it seems the whole nation has accepted defeat’. Looking at Congress people today, it appears that Indira ji may not have been able to assess the people of the country correctly, but she had done an exact evaluation of the Congress,” he said.
PM Modi said that this was the thinking of the “royal family of the Congress” about Indians.
He added that a similar thinking is visible even today, adding that he has immense faith in the ability of the country and its people.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor later hit back at PM Modi’s remarks on Nehru.
“Poor Nehru ji has gone since 60 years, and he continues the same lament about Nehru ji. We are flattered that he is so worried about us that he has devoted his entire speech towards the Congress.”
(With inputs from PTI)
