Prime Minister Narendra Modi, blasting the Congress and the Gandhis in parliament today, said "talent is the first casualty of dynastic politics" and listed how the country would have been different "if there were no Congress".
The Congress walked out in the middle of the speech.
"The Congress's problem is it has never thought beyond its dynasty. The biggest threats to democracy are dynastic parties. And when a family becomes paramount then the first casualty is talent," PM Modi said in Rajya Sabha, replying to a debate on government policies.
"People wonder what if there had been no Congress. They are stuck in India is Indira, Indira is India," the PM said, referring to a Congress phrase for one of its iconic leaders, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
He said Mahatma Gandhi wanted the Congress to be scrapped. "This was Mahatma Gandhi's wish - he knew what would happen if they remained and said destroy this. If Gandhi's wishes had been followed, India would have been free from nepotism," he remarked.
He went on to preface a long list of allegations with: "Agar Congress na hota..."
"If, going by Gandhi's wish, there were no Congress, democracy would have been free of nepotism. India would have taken the swadeshi path. There would be no stain of Emergency. Corruption would not have been institutionalised for decades. There would have been no casteism or regionalism. Sikhs would not have been massacred. There would not have been an exodus from Kashmir. Women would not have been burnt in tandoors. The common man would not have had to wait so long for basic facilities," PM Modi said.
"I can keep counting," he added.
Hitting back at the Congress for accusing him of destroying federalism, the Prime Minister said the party had a history of dismissing state governments. "They believed in discredit, destabilise, dismiss."
He also commented that Congress "is trapped in the ideology of urban naxals".
"That's why their mentality is destructive. Urban naxals took advantage of the Congress and took over their minds."
India, he said, is known as the "mother of democracy", and democracy and debate was a tradition of centuries.
"The Congress thinks the country was born only in 1947. This mindset is harmful for the country as its policies have affected the country's progress in the last 75 years. We will never learn lessons in democracy from those who trampled over democracy in 1975," PM Modi said.
After loudly protesting the PM's broadside, the Congress walked out of the house.
"We expected the PM to respond to our questions on inflation, unemployment, farmer crisis, Chinese aggression along Indo-China border... But PM attacked Congress instead. That is why we walked out in protest," Leader of Opposition Mallikarjuna Kharge told NDTV.
The Prime Minister in his speech also accused the Congress of submitting to the Gandhi family. "Whenever anyone in the Congress has spoken against a particular family, the results have been there for all to see," he said, referring to Sitaram Kesri, who was removed as party chief.
PM Modi also raised the example of Lata Mangeshkar's musician brother Hridaynath Mangeshkar, who was allegedly sacked from the state-run All India Radio for reciting a poem on Veer Savarkar. Lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri, he added, was jailed for criticising Jawaharlal Nehru.
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