Charging that the Narendra Modi government had failed on all fronts since coming to power in 2014, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram said on Saturday that suppression of human rights, burdening of people and crippling of the economy were its major achievements.
Addressing a public meeting here, the former Union Finance Minister said that when the Congress-led UPA government completed 10 years in 2014, Mr. Modi entered the electoral arena with ‘Achhe din aane waale hain’ (good days are coming) slogan only to ruin the lives of people.
Following suppression of human rights guaranteed in the Constitution, people, especially the minorities and Dalits, lived in misery and with a sense of fear as if they were in an autocratic country, he said.
During the Congress regime, apart from rights enshrined in the Constitution, human rights were respected and there were right to information, right to employment and right to food. But after the NDA government came to power, all these rights were trampled upon, he alleged.
After losing freedom of speech and expression, people could not even move around freely or start a business or industry of their choice, thanks to the dominance of right wing forces. Minorities and Dalits lived in fear.
During the Congress regime, there were protests and demonstrations on various issues, but people had the right to protest but now they were shot dead, he said, condemning the Thoothukudi firing incident.
“Demonetisation was a foolish decision by the Modi government,” he said adding the move, combined with the introduction of GST, had ruined the economy and led to loss of jobs and closure of thousands of small and medium industries.
The Indian economy was now running on a single wheel after tyres of three wheels - export growth, bank loans for industries and industrial growth -- flattened, he said. The country’s economic growth, which was 8.2% during 2015-16, nosedived to 6.7% in 2017-18. Agriculture growth was at an all time high at 4.8% when the Congress was in power but declined to 2.5% now, he said.