Kerala-: Warning that the foundation of the nationhood was on the threshold of destruction, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi today said that these elections were for the soul of India.
“This country that has made us proud for its foundation of incomparable spirituality, its unbreakable resilience, its unfailing enterprise and its immense ability to embrace diversity and thrive in it, yet, these very foundations of our nationhood stand at the threshold of destruction today”, she said while addressing a public rally today.
“It is a fight for the soul of this great nation. It is a fight for a democratic India that stood valiantly against tyranny and inequality. It is a fight for the freedom we once took for granted, it is a fight for hope, and it is a fight for all that is right”, she added.
Warning against threat to democracy, Priyanka Gandhi said, “force asserts itself over righteousness. Laws are enacted bypassing the processes of democracy and enforced upon people against their will”.
She pointed out how people owing allegiance to the Prime Minister speak haughtily about changing the constitution that was written with the blood of our freedom fighters and martyrs.
They treat the Constitution of India that upholds our rights of liberty, equality, and brotherhood as an instrument of their own greed and ambition, she remarked.
The Congress general secretary pointed out, how the voices of dissent were being silenced, students are arrested for expressing their opinion, activists are raided and jailed, journalists are sacked, beaten, and imprisoned for reporting the truth and much of the media is controlled by collaborators of a government that believes in false propaganda, silence, and oppression.
She referred to the way opposition leaders were imprisoned and expelled from parliament with impunity. “Government agencies that are meant to protect the law are turned into unlawful extortionists and used to silence dissent”, she said, while adding, uniformity of culture, religion and language is imposed, and diversity is stamped out for political gain.
The government protects rapists and defends the oppressors and abusers of women, they vilify victims of heinous crimes using the entire strength of their administrations to question the characters of victims of abuse, she alleged, while pointing out how Olympic medalists protest for days on the streets begging to be heard, while their abuser is defended by the Prime Minister.
Priyanka Gandhi alleged that policies were being framed to benefit Prime Minister’s friends. “Public assets that belong to the people of India, assets that were built by the sweat and toil of our people, are handed to the Prime Minister’s billionaire friends one after the other with impunity”, she said, while pointing out how airports, ports, highways, vast tracts of public land and whole sectors of industry like cement, power and coal are virtually controlled by just a handful of businessmen close to the Prime Minister.
Making a passionate appeal to people of Kerala about importance of these elections, Priyanka Gandhi said, “in this land of Mahatma Gandhi and Narayan Guru, this land of the great people of Kerala celebrates Vishu and Onam, and Eid and Easter, this land of harmony and plurality, of equality and education, I implore you to recognize that this election is not a mere election as it is a fight for the soul of India”.
