In a piercing retort to the Prime Minister, Kharge said the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ideological icon and Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee backed the British against Congress during the Independence movement and that PM Modi’s speeches have “a stink of RSS“.
“Modi-Shah’s political and ideological ancestors supported the British and Muslim League against the Indians in the Freedom Struggle. Even today, they are invoking the Muslim League against the ‘Congress Nyay Patra‘ guided and shaped according to the aspirations, needs and demands of common Indians,” Malliarjun Kharge wrote on X.
“Modi-Shah’s ideological ancestors opposed Mahatma Gandhi’s call for “Quit India” in 1942, which was the movement chaired by Maulana Azad. Everyone knows how Prasad Mukherjee formed his governments in Bengal, Sindh and NWFP in the 1940s in coalition with the Muslim League,” the Congress chief said.
Kharge claimed that Mukherjee wrote to the British governor about how to “combat” the Quit India movement and “suppress” Congress.
“Did Shyama Prasad Mukherjee not write to the then British Governor about how the Quit India movement of 1942 can be “combated” and how the Congress should be suppressed? And for this, he said that “Indians have to trust the British” ?” Kharge asked.
He accused PM Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah of spreading falsehoods about Congress manifesto, which the party has named ‘Nayay Patra’.
“There is a stink of RSS in Modi ji’s speeches, BJP’s electoral graph is plunging day by day, therefore the RSS has started remembering its best friend-the Muslim League !” Kharge added.
‘Lodged strong objection to PM’s remark,’ says Congress
Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid said the party was the Congress party was “deeply saddened by the Prime Minister’s remark. The Congress leader said the party has sought “serious action” against the PM Modi’s statement.
“We are deeply saddened by what the Prime Minister says in his speeches, what he has said about our manifesto is a bundle of lies, we are deeply saddened by this. You can do a degree anywhere with any other party, you can argue it, you can dissect it, but to say that a national level party which has been involved in our national movement would write such a bundle of lies in its manifesto, whereas a very good manifesto has been written,” Khurshid told news agency ANI.
“He also said that this seems to be the manifesto of the parties which were opposing the independence of our secular society…We are extremely saddened by this matter and we understand that the Prime Minister has no right to say such a thing. We have put this matter before the Election Commission and have made a special request to them to take it seriously and take action on it,” he added
Congress leader Pawan Khera said that the party has lodged a strong objection to “the way Prime Minister gave the status of Muslim League to our manifesto”.
“We also expressed our views on the Prime Minister’s hoardings in universities…Since elections have just been declared, the Election Commission should recommend whoever it wants to remove or not,” Khera added.
A few days ago, the Prime Minister had said that the Congress’s manifesto reflected the imprint of Mulsim Leauge, the Mohammed Ali Jinnah-led organisation that had spearheaded the movement for Pakistan as a separate land for Muslims.
“Manifesto release by Congress completely bears the imprint of the Muslim League’s thinking, with the remainder dominated by Leftists. This Congress is disconnected from the aspirations of today’s India,” said the PM had said.