Kharge accuses Modi of dodging questions, says government undermining democracy

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge launched a fierce attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, accusing him of lacking the courage to answer questions raised by the opposition and alleging that the government is unwilling to run Parliament in a democratic manner.

Speaking to reporters after Modi’s 97‑minute reply in the Rajya Sabha to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s address, Kharge dismissed the prime minister’s remarks as “repeating falsehoods” and claimed that he had failed to respond to any substantive points raised by the opposition.

“When we presented our statements on the President's address, the prime minister didn't respond to a single point. He just kept talking about 100 years... 75 years... 50 years,” Kharge said. He also criticised the government’s denial of the existence of former Army chief M.M. Naravane’s book, noting that senior ministers had insisted it had not been published despite copies being available.

Kharge accused Modi of misrepresenting Congress’s position on Sikhs, Dalits and Adivasis, insisting that the party had always respected these communities. “The Congress party respects Sikhs greatly; under a Congress government, Dr. Manmohan Singh served as Finance Minister and then Prime Minister, but Narendra Modi respects neither Sikhs, nor Dalits, nor Adivasis. The only thing in Narendra Modi's mind is how to belittle others,” he alleged.

The Congress leader further attacked Modi’s criticism of Jawaharlal Nehru, saying the country’s first prime minister had laid the foundations of the public sector. “When not a single watch was made in the country, it was the public sector that stepped up. Instead of saving it, Modi worked to dismantle it. Narendra Modi has no ideology. He has no vision for guiding the country,” Kharge said, adding that the prime minister’s “morale is broken” and his “sparkle has faded”.

Kharge also accused Modi of avoiding Parliament out of fear of questions from Rahul Gandhi, and criticised the Speaker’s claim that intelligence inputs had advised the prime minister not to respond in the Lok Sabha. “The Lok Sabha Speaker said-intelligence was received, so he advised Modi ji not to respond to the President's address in the Lok Sabha. If your intelligence is so good, where was it during terrorist attacks like Pulwama? Lynchings are happening across the country, attacks on Adivasis and Dalits are taking place. Where does this intelligence go then?” he asked.

Blaming the government for repeated deadlocks in the Lok Sabha, Kharge said stalling Parliament for days at a time amounted to a “failure of democracy”. He further alleged that Modi had been troubled by references to him in the Epstein files, and accused him of striking a trade deal with US president Donald Trump that “sacrificed India’s farmers while enriching America’s”.

Kharge’s remarks came a day after Modi accused Congress of insulting the President of India by disrupting proceedings in the Lok Sabha. Replying to the debate in the Rajya Sabha, the prime minister charged the opposition with insulting the Constitution, tribals, Dalits and people from the northeast.

Alluding to Dilip Saikia, the BJP MP representing Darrang‑Udalguri in Assam, and Krishna Prasad Tenneti, the TDP MP from Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh, both of whom serve on the Lok Sabha’s Panel of Chairpersons, Modi said, “The incident that took place in the Lok Sabha is very painful. We can understand your frustration, but it was done in the temple of democracy. At that time, there was an MP from Assam in the chair, and papers were thrown at him. Is it not an insult to the northeast? Not an insult to the people of Assam?”.

The prime minister insisted that such behaviour was “shameful” and declared that those responsible “do not have the right to speak about the Constitution”.