Congress has become the leader of tukde-tukde gang: PM Modi in Lok Sabha

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon & Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, February 7

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched the most blistering attack on the Congress ever, calling the grand old party the “leader of tukde-tukde gang” and accusing it of sowing seeds with a potential to foment separatist tendencies.

Replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in Lok Sabha today, the PM, without mentioning Rahul Gandhi, questioned the latter’s remarks made in the House last week in context of the Indian nation and said the Congress had “inherited the policy of divide-and-rule from the British and was using it on its bid to gain power”.

“Things were said in this House about the Indian nation. The nation was insulted by saying this word doesn’t exist in the Constitution. Why is the Congress insulting the nation? The nation is not a mere arrangement for governance. For us it’s a living entity and soul,” said the PM days after Gandhi said in LS that India was a union of states and the word nation was not mentioned in the Constitution.

The PM quoted from the Vishnu Purana, Pt Jawaharlal Nehru’s Discovery of India, and Tamil legend Subramanian Bharti’s composition on the greatness of the Indian nation to question Congress party’s understanding of the concept of nation.

In a swipe at Gandhi who was absent from the House the PM said, “If you can’t understand the Vishnu Purana I can read from Pt Nehru’s book.”

The PM went on to accuse the Congress of attempting to incite Tamil passions (he was again referring to Gandhi’s previous remarks in LS) and hailed Tamilians for lining up the roads to bid adieu to late CDS Gen Rawat who died in a military chopper crash in Tamil Nadu in December.

“The residents of Tamil Nadu stood along the road to see off Gen Rawat and chanted Veer Vanakkam. That is my India. India is united and strong and will remain so,” the PM said in a 90-minute speech interspersed with opposition interruptions led by Congress leader in the House Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and TMC’s Saugata Roy.

The PM said the Congress has always hated such things (the concept of nation) and added that divisive tendencies had made home in Congress DNA.

“That’s why the Congress has become the leader of tukde-tukde gang,” the PM said, adding that unable to succeed in electoral politics the Congress had decided to spawn negativity and had even started “insulting the innovative capacity of India”.

He questioned the Congress for comparing wealth creators and entrepreneurs to corona variants and said, “For years, Congress plays politics in the name of poverty alleviation. Poverty did not get eradicated but the poor eventually confined the Congress to 44 seats.”

The PM said with its negative mindset Congress seems to have made up its mind to not return to power for the next 100 years.

Lok Sabha passed the Motion of Thanks on President’s address with a voice vote after nearly 90 plus amendments moved by 13 Opposition MPs were negatived. The Motion was passed after PM Modi’s nearly 90-minute reply to the debate on the agenda.

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