Congress is a flowing river, not affected by few persons leaving it: Mallikarjun Kharge

Congress National President Mallikarjun Kharge strongly criticized the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a press conference held in Guwahati on Saturday. 

Regarding the defection of former Congress leaders to the BJP, Kharge raised questions about their loyalty and dedication to the Congress party. 

He said, “What is sad is that those who were nurtured by the Congress party and became leaders also say the same. If Congress was so bad, why did you spend 30-40 years of your life on it unnecessarily? I don't know what has happened to them, but they too criticize Indira Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi.”

“Those questioning Congress leaders for changing constituencies must also tell me how many times have (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee and (Lal Krishna) Advani changed their seats”, Kharge said. Kharge claimed that Congress is not affected by people who 'grew up in the party and left it later'. 

Kharge said, "Congress is like a flowing river, it is not affected by a few persons leaving it," he asserted”.

Further, Kharge accused PM Modi of failing to fulfill any of his electoral promises and criticized the BJP's claims of significant progress under Modi's leadership.

Addressing the media, Kharge stated, "He (PM Modi) did not implement even one of what he said (electoral promises). Still, he says that Modi did a lot of work for the country. Congress is a party of those who made India independent. The BJP never fought for the independence of India or the development of India. We built this country. They (BJP) speak so much about patriotism that Nehru is nothing before them, Indira Gandhi is nothing before them and Lal Bahadur Shastri is nothing before them--Modi is everything. They even put the idea that India attained independence after 2014 and the country was not independent before that - all of these are reflected in his words," he said.

Kharge concluded by addressing PM Modi’s "tight slap" reaction after the Supreme Court rejected requests for 100 per cent VVPAT verification of votes punched into EVMs, Kharge said that it is a habit of Modi to say such things.

"It is Modi's habit to speak such things. The plea was by an advocate, not my party. It was done by lawyers and NGOs," Kharge said.