In her maiden speech in Parliament as the first speaker for the Opposition during the debate on the Constitution, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday criticised the Narendra Modi government and said it had forgotten that Samvidhan (Constitution) is not Sangh ka vidhan (law of the Sangh). Accusing the government of oppressing people and spreading fear while working for an industrialist, she said the Constitution gave courage to the common people in the face of oppression.
Priyanka also took the criticism of her party and family relating to the Emergency head-on, asking the government to learn from it and apologise for its mistakes.
At the beginning of her 32-minute speech, the Wayanad MP paid tributes to the security personnel who laid down their lives defending Parliament when it was attacked on December 13, 2001. “My friends there were saying this and that happened in 1975. To seekh leejiye na aap bhi (So you also learn a lesson). You also apologise for your mistakes,” she said. Priyanka then asked the government to return to ballot paper-based elections and see what happened.
She also hit back at previous speaker and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who accused the Congress of dismissing elected governments when in power, seeking to know whether the present government had not tried to break parties in various states for coming to power?
“Who tried to break Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh governments through money? The people know that they have a washing machine. Whoever goes there gets washed. I can see some former friends who are there. Perhaps they have been washed,” she said, accusing the BJP of engineering defections in other parties.
Responding to Rajnath Singh’s assertion that it was the Modi government that paved the way for women’s reservation to become a future reality, Priyanka asked, “Why are you not implementing the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam? Why wait for 10 years? Will women wait for 10 years?”
Calling for a caste census, Priyanka said, “People want a caste census to know what is the situation of which group, so that policies be made accordingly. When the Opposition demanded this before the Lok Sabha polls, their response was that buffalo and mangalsutra would be stolen. This is their level of seriousness.” Acknowledging that Rajnath Singh had earlier asked for a blueprint for the way ahead if a caste census is done, Priyanka said that even this statement sprang from the jolt they received in the Lok Sabha polls.
Taking forward her brother and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s charge that the government was working for an industrialist, Priyanka said, “Farm laws are being made for big industrialists. From Wayanad to Lalitpur, farmers are crying. They have been abandoned. In Himachal, all laws are being made for big industrialists. Everything is being changed for one person. Adani has been given all cold storages by your government, not by the state governments. All businesses, resources, wealth, opportunity, seaports, airports, roads, railway work, factories, mines, government companies are being given to one man.”
Asserting that the Constitution was anchored in the freedom struggle, Priyanka said, “We have a proud tradition of debate and discussion for thousands of years and in our various religions. Our freedom struggle sprang from this. It was a unique non-violent struggle. The freedom struggle was very democratic. Different sections of society – whatever their religion, caste or language – took part in this struggle.”
“I have seen this flame flicker across the country. In Unnao, I went to the home of a rape victim who was burnt alive. I met her father. His farms had been torched. He was also beaten up. He told me she wanted justice. Her police complaints were turned down. She kept fighting her battle alone. The courage to fight is what women got from our Constitution,” the MP added.
Priyanka also recounted the story of the struggle for justice of the widow of a Dalit man beaten to death by the police in Agra, and the son of a Muslim barber who succumbed to a police bullet in Sambhal wanting to become a doctor to fulfil his dream, saying that the Constitution was the source of their courage in adversity.
Calling the Constitution a suraksha kavach (protective shield), she said, “It’s sad that our Treasury benches have tried to break this suraksha kavach. The Constitution promises economic, social and political justice. Through lateral entries, they have been undoing the Constitution. Had they got a majority in the Lok Sabha, they would have changed the Constitution. They are talking about it because of the election results.”
Priyanka referred to what she saw as the atmosphere of fear spread by the government, saying, “People of the country protested openly for 75 years when they were angered. Never did debate stop. Today, people are made to fear speaking the truth. Be it journalists, opposition leaders, professors, or student leaders, they are not spared. ED and CBI are used against people. People are put in jail, including political leaders. They have filled the country with fear.”
“I want to remind the House that such fear was rampant during British Rule. When people of the ideology of Gandhi sitting on this side were fighting for Independence, those on the side of the other ideology were afraid and colluding with the British,” she added, underlining, “It is nature’s law that those who spread fear stay in fear. They are scared of discussion, of criticism. We have been asking for a discussion for days now, but they don’t have the courage. Even kings in olden days used to quietly go out in disguise to figure out what people thought about them. But while the present king loves to disguise himself, he doesn’t have the courage to listen to the people or face criticism.”
She asserted that the country could not be run by fear for long, and that it could be run only by courage. “When someone is oppressed so much that eventually he feels that he has nothing to lose, the fear disappears and such strength emanates that no coward can face it. This country has not been in the hands of cowards for long ever,” Priyanka said.
The MP said that in her first 15 days in Parliament, she had seen the Prime Minister in the House for only 10 minutes. “The PM holds the Constitution to his head, but is not bothered about Manipur or Hathras. Perhaps he does not understand that the Samvidhan is not Sangh ka vidhan. Millions of Indians have mutual love, not hatred,” Priyanka asserted.
She also took potshots at the BJP for its recurrent attacks on India’s first prime minister and her great grandfather Jawaharlal Nehru, saying, “You talk about the past, what Nehru did or did not do. Talk about the present. What are you doing? What is your responsibility? Or is all responsibility always Nehru’s?”
She then obliquely referred to Nehru’s contribution: “The one whose name you avoid taking, and sometimes take to save yourself, he built HAL, BHEL, SAIL, GAIL, ONGC, NTPC, IIT, IIM and many PSUs. His name can be erased from books and speeches but his contribution to this country’s Independence and to building it can never be erased.” She also commended Indira Gandhi for bank nationalisation in 1969.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kerala’s Wayanad constituency in a recent bypoll after the seat was vacated by her brother Rahul Gandhi.
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