Modi government muzzling voice of Opposition, students: Sonia on JNU row

A combative Sonia Gandhi on Monday accused the Modi government of having “lost all sense of balance” and undermining democratic norms over the Jawaharlal Nehru University row, making it clear that Congress will take up the issue aggressively along with like-minded parties in the Budget session of Parliament beginning on Tuesday.

“The ruling establishment seems to have lost all sense of balance, and of proportion. It appears determined to undermine all democratic norms. It seems hell-bent to destroy the spirit of inquiry, the spirit of questioning, the spirit of debate and dissent.

“First, it muzzled our voice in the Lok Sabha. Then it silenced civil society activists and organisations. Now is the turn of universities”, Gandhi said while addressing a meeting of the Congress Working Committee.

In a statement, the CWC meeting, which was attended by party vice president Rahul Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, lamented that Constitutional values and democratic norms are under “systematic assault”.

“What has happened in a leading institution of higher learning and indeed in similar institutions, and the violence and hooliganism that happened in a court in the nation’s capital has shocked the nation”, it said.

“It is a planned attack on the freedom of expression and the freedom to differ. A totally manufactured debate on patriotism and nationalism is being generated through manipulated news-clips to cover up the government’s failures and its heavy-handedness in dealing with student protesters”, the apex policy making body of the Congress said.

The Congress in cooperation with other like-minded parties will raise these and other issues when Parliament begins on Tuesday, the CWC said.

“Parliament’s duty is to debate and legislate,” it said.

Gandhi said that contrary to what the government has been saying, Congress wants to make it clear once and for all that it wants Parliament to function, to legislate.

“The problem is not with us, it is with the government which refuses to accept that the democratic right of the Opposition is to raise burning public issues for debate and discussion. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that Parliament functions,” she said.

At the outset, Gandhi told the Working Committee it was meeting under “most disturbing circumstances, circumstances that are causing grave disquiet across the country”.

“To cover up its many failures, the ruling establishment has once again unleashed its divisive agenda by generating a wholly unwarranted debate on patriotism and nationalism,” she alleged.

Striking a similar note, the CWC said “disturbing developments” have taken place in recent months across the country.

“These have been engineered by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and affiliated organisations. What has been happening is part of a deliberate plan to divert attention from the central government’s numerous failures - the failures to revive the economy, to control food inflation, to translate grandiose announcements into reality on the ground, to deal effectively with growing rural distress and to improve the internal security situation.”

Besides, the apex policy making body of the party insisted that educational institutions are not only the target, but have been a “high priority in the RSS’s nefarious agenda to impose their ideology in the universities and colleges.”

Turning to Haryana, the CWC expressed grave concern over the outbreak of violence where the situation has been “totally mishandled by an incompetent” state government.

It appealed to all sections of the people of Haryana to abjure violence and restore peace.

Professional agencies like the NIA have been “completely emasculated” calling into serious question the government’s commitment to fighting terrorism, it alleged.

“The Congress is fully conscious of its duties. It has always been constructive when in Opposition. But the responsibility for creating an atmosphere conducive to the smooth functioning of Parliament is that of the government.

“It is actually the government that has miserably failed to ensure that Parliament functions normally,” the CWC said.

Summing up the challenge, Gandhi said “Simply put, democratic and liberal values are under severe assault. The freedom to think and speak are being drastically curtailed.”

The CWC expressed concern over the fabric of communal harmony being “systematically eroded and the atmosphere for social harmony being systematically vitiated”.

“The language used by BJP leaders is objectionable, unacceptable and must be condemned by one and all,” it said.

Image: Congress president Sonia Gandhi with Rahul Gandhi at the CWC meeting at 10 Janpath, in New Delhi on Monday. Photograph: Manvender Vashist/PTI