Congress leader Manish Tewari said on Wednesday, while reacting to Himanta Biswa Sarma’s “Saddam Hussein” jibe at Rahul Gandhi that the Assam Chief Minister “sounds like a petty troll.”
Sarma on Tuesday said that Rahul Gandhi “looks like Saddam Hussein,” who was the former Iraqi president and was executed by hanging on 30 December, 2006, after being convicted of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal. When asked about Sarma’s remark during a press conference, Tewari said, “In public life, it is very important that we maintain the decorum of language and propriety. The Chief Minister of Assam, unfortunately, sounds like a petty troll when he articulates sentences of this kind.”
Tewari further accused the BJP government of legitimizing corruption in the state and dubbed it a “dangerous sign” for democracy.
With the Gujarat assembly elections around the corner, Congress has started aggressively attacking the BJP, which has been in power in the state for the last 27 years, and the recent Morbi incident has provided an opportunity for the grand old party to accuse the Bhupendra Patel-led government in Gujarat of “legitimising corruption.”
Citing the recent Morbi incident that took place in the state and claimed the lives of over 130 people, the Congress leader said that the BJP has become “arrogant” as they think they cannot be removed from power.
“You (the BJP) legitimised corruption, and then you say that you want to implement this model in the entire country. The legitimization of corruption is a dangerous sign for democracy,” he said while urging the people of the state to “break this arrogance” in the upcoming Assembly elections by dethroning the BJP.
Addressing a press conference here, Tewari said, “If such a tragedy had taken place in some other state and 141 innocent people would have died, over 180 people would have been injured, would the responsibility not have been set? Would nobody have resigned? The Gujarat High Court is slamming the state government daily.”
Questioning the BJP government for not arresting the real culprit behind the tragic Morbi incident, he said, “The Supreme Court also said that the Gujarat High Court needs to keep a close eye on the incident. Who were the people who were arrested? The ticket seller, normal workers. The big fish, like the ones who are wealthy and the one who was given the contract, being arrested? Because the government has become arrogant.”
“They feel that no matter how they behave with the public, their (the BJP’s) government will be formed again. I’d like to urge the people of Gujarat to overcome their arrogance.The BJP got the chance again in 2017. In five years, three chief ministers changed. What can be a bigger proof than this of a government’s failure?” he added.
The Congress leaders also took a swipe at the BJP-led government over the change of chief ministers in the state in the last five years, and said that there cannot be a bigger example of “failure of governance” than this.
“What can be a bigger governance failure than this, that three chief ministers were needed to be ousted? The people will decide what will happen with the fourth chief minister,” he added.
The BJP has changed three chief ministers in the last five years. The party had made Vijay Rupani the chief minister before the 2017 Assembly elections in the state.
