Narendra Modi Taking Domestic Politics Abroad, Congress Needs to Improve Communication, Says Sonia Gandhi

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi today attacked the Narendra Modi government over what she called its "substance' and "style" and claimed where the Congress had lost out on was its weak "marketing skills". 

Addressing the conclave of chief ministers from Congress-ruled states as the Modi government completes one year, she indicated that the Congress had failed to tell the country of its achievements. The Prime Minister, she said, was "taking domestic politics to audiences abroad".

The message was underscored by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who said his successor has been "a more adept salesman, event manager and communicator" than him.

The Prime Minister had been criticised by the opposition time and again for his remarks abroad that had been construed as critical of earlier governments.  

The last such occasion was during his visit to China and Korea, where, addressing the Indian diaspora, he said, "Earlier, you felt ashamed of being born Indian". The outraged Congress called it a "downfall of discourse in politics".

Today's meet sought to focus on failures of the Narendra Modi government, which recently completed a year in office.

Not only did the Congress train its guns on the claims of the government on the economic front, the Nehruvian legacy of "open, liberal, diverse democracy" was under threat, Mrs Gandhi said.

"In terms of substance, there are systematic attempts being made to dismantle the edifice of the welfare state," she said. "In terms of style, there is unprecedented centralisation of power and authority, the deliberate by-passing of Parliamentary procedures and practices, threats to civil society and warnings to judiciary."

There is another aspect of both substance and style, Mrs Gandhi said.

The Prime Minister, on one hand, wants to "project himself as the great champion of good governance and Constitutional values", she said. On the other hand, "he allows many of his colleagues to make vile statements and foment communal polarisation".

This "dangerous and duplicitous game", she said, has already damaged the country's secular fabric.