New Delhi: Accusing the NDA government of diverting the public attention from the real issues, Congress leader Ahmed Patel on Thursday questioned the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Government’s actions in several issues in the recent past, including the JNU row and Rohith Vemula’s suicide in Hyderabad Central University.
Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Patel said whenever a problem confronted the current government, instead of finding the root cause, they have hounded those who have raised the issue.
“In the past 18 months if there is any agenda that this government has had, it is to divert public attention from their real performance,” he said.
“Whenever a problem has confronted this government, instead of finding the root cause, they have hounded those who have raised the issue, or have twisted the crisis to mislead the nation. I am afraid that such a pattern is clear from their actions in the last two years .They want to create a problem where none exists, just to serve their ulterior purposes,” he added.
He said that when writers and academics protested against intolerance, the government chose to defame them instead of engaging in a dialogue.
He said that the incident of Mohammed Aqlaq’s lynching in Dadri for allegedly eating beef was also not handled properly by the government.
Patel said that the government attempted to portray Rohith Vemula, a Phd scholar, in negative light and raised questions about his caste, instead of acting against the erring minister.
“In JNU the issue wasn’t that a bunch of misguided youth were chanting anti-national slogans of Durga and Mahisasura, but you using disproportionate state force for a matter that could have been resolved within the premises of the university,” he added.
He further asked why the government was diverting public attention at the cost of risking communal harmony.
“To conceal the fact that you lack any original idea or strategy and have to rely on the template laid down by successive Congress governments, notwithstanding the fact that you question us on the achievements of last 60 years,” he said.
Patel said that the government had failed on all four fronts of governance – Economy, foreign policy, security and social development.
“You may choose to hide these failures under fancy slogans and glossy events, but the agricultural distress and fledgling economy which you have unleashed on this nation is now taking a violent manifestation, which has come to haunt us,” he said. (ANI)