‘Weakest govt’: Opposition slams 7-year BJP rule

The Opposition on Sunday attacked the Centre for allegedly failing to fulfil its responsibilities and triggering crises at various fronts as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government marked the seventh anniversary of its tenure.

The Congress said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s seven years in power could be summed up in seven “criminal wrongdoings”, accusing the Centre of bringing in a financial crisis, triggering large-scale unemployment and mismanaging the Covid crisis.

“In the last seven years, the Modi government has given the country immeasurable pain. It has been seven years since the country got a failed, and mindless government. The country is suffering as unemployment rate reached 11.3% in 7 years. Petrol [prices have crossed] ₹100 and mustard oil ₹200 in many provinces. It has proved to be the weakest government in the country in the 73 years,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a press conference on Sunday.

Surjewala said the government just watched as unemployment rate soared to its highest in 45 years and people died due to lack of life-saving drugs and oxygen.

“Time has come to ask who is responsible for insurmountable devastation, agony and anguish and unfathomable pain that has been inflicted on the people of India and that is why it is time for stock-taking,” he said.

The Congress alleged that the government was not paying heed to the needs of the poor and the middle-class as it accused the Centre of playing with the livelihoods of farmers to help its “capitalist friends” by bringing in the three controversial farm laws.

Surjewaala said the government also failed to protect the country’s sovereignty. “Far from showing the red eye to China, the BJP government could not hold China back from the encroachment within our border in Ladakh,” he said.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut Centre urged the Centre to introspect on whether it has been able to fulfil the basic needs of people as he praised previous governments. “The country is surviving on the good deeds of previous governments since the time of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to Manmohan Singh,” he said.