New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman snapped back at Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi after the latter accused BJP of seeking to divert people’s attention from its “failures” by creating “communal discord” and said that “suppression of youth and the students will prove to be the beginning of the end of Modi government.”
Sitharaman said that Gandhi’s remarks are “irresponsible and motivated aiming at quick political gains”.
“As a responsible Opposition party, it is Sonia Gandhi to call on all to maintain peace and calm and to ensure that the Congress party does not provoke violence,” said Sitharaman.
“What the party has actually done is to keep the perpetrators of mob violence during the anti-Sikh violence in Delhi next to their leadership even as they speak about violence. This itself conveys the message of intending to provoke. Congress must remember that Citizenship (Amendment) Act is a law passed by both the Houses of Parliament,” she added.
Sitharaman questioned Congress party, “What have they done to calm West Bengal and Delhi in particular,” and ” Has Sonia Gandhi and Congress changed their stance from what their leader has spoken on the floor of the House? Are Sonia Gandhi’s human rights reserved only for some and not for the oppressed Hindu Bengalis who fled in a much inhuman and demeaning way and are for the last several decades languishing in camps all over the country?
Sitharaman criticised Gandhi and said that she is shedding crocodile tears for students.
“Wasn’t it during the time of Indira Gandhi that the students of a Central University in Delhi were sent to Tihar Jail? Police had entered the University and one whole academic year had to be declared null and void,” she said.
Sitharaman added that during the UPA regime, food inflation had reached double-digit, economic resources were beneficial only for the cronies and rampant corruption furthered poverty.
“It is unfortunate that the party which should be playing a responsible role in taking this country forward, is playing opportunistic politics,” she said.
