Kapil Sibal
Stepping up its attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress party on Sunday said history books in the future would recognise the six years of his government as being a “harbinger of doom”, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the government’s helplessness.
The Congress also hit out at the government regarding Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta’s remarks that some High Courts were “running a parallel government in the country”. The party asked whether the statement was meant to browbeat the courts.
Addressing a press conference, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also asked the PM to reveal how much money was paid to migrant workers from the PM-CARES fund. “They don’t know how to run a government. That is why they have always been focusing on a polarising agenda. They don’t have any experience of administration at the national level… in states it is a different matter…. Now they don’t know how to face this pandemic,” Sibal said.
The Congress leader accused the government of focusing on a “communal” and “polarised” agenda since it came to power last May till the imposition of lockdown on March 24. Real issues like education, healthcare and the concerns of the poor, Sibal said, were not on the government’s agenda.
Sibal said the government does not know the number of migrants there are in the country, and that it was going by the 2011 census data.
“The government tells the court that we are prophets of doom. Future history books will recognise these six years of this government as being a harbinger of doom. The Prime Minister talks about protecting democracy, but actually, till March 24, they tried to throttle democracy. He says he got rid of corruption and misgovernance. Was demonetisation good governance? Was multi-layered GST good governance?” he asked.