india

Updated: Mar 12, 2019 23:50 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the 89th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi march to attack the Congress on Tuesday, saying the opposition party was representative of a culture that was an anti-thesis of Gandhian thought.

In a blog to mark the anniversary of the march Gandhi led in 1930 to protest against a steep tax levied by the British on salt, the prime minister said, “Gandhi Ji taught us to think of the plight of the poorest person we have seen and think about how our work impacts that person.”

“I am proud to say that in all aspects of our Government’s work, the guiding consideration is to see how it will alleviate poverty and bring prosperity. Sadly, the anti-thesis of Gandhian thought is the Congress culture,” he wrote.

Gandhi opposed misgovernance and corruption, and his Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has done everything to punish the corrupt, Modi said. “But, the nation has seen how Congress and corruption have become synonyms. Name the sector and there will be a Congress scam-- from defence, telecom, irrigation, sporting events to agriculture, rural development and more,” he wrote in the blog on his website.

Gandhi spoke about detachment and staying away from wealth, Modi said. “However, all that Congress has done is to fill their own bank accounts and lead luxurious lifestyles at the cost of providing basic necessities to the poor.”

Modi said Gandhi despised dynastic politics but ‘Dynasty First’ had become the Congress’s way. The PM referred to Gandhi’s commitment to democracy, and said the Congress, ironically, imposed an internal emergency on the country. “The Congress misused Article 356 several times. If they did not like a leader, that Government was dismissed. Always eager to promote dynastic culture, Congress has no regard for democratic values,” Modi wrote.

Modi said Gandhi understood the Congress culture well, which is why he wanted the Congress disbanded, especially after India independence in 1947.

In 1937 itself, Gandhi said, “I would go to the length of giving the whole Congress a decent burial, rather than put up with the corruption that is rampant,” Modi wrote.

Hours after the blog, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel hit out at the PM, saying that some people were the writing blogs in Mahatma Gandhi’s name for “political advantage”.

“Following truth and religion, 89 years ago, Bapu had embarked on the Dandi March,” Patel said. “For the past 5 years, some people are writing blogs in the name of Bapu for political advantage, but I would like to remind them that when the march was being undertaken, their teachers had opposed it,” he added.