NEW DELHI (TIP): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Aug 13 hit out at Congress for disrupting Parliament, saying the party’s tactics demonstrated its dependence on power and the anti-democratic mindset which led to Emergency in 1975, as he called upon NDA MPs to expose the anti-growth stance of Congress and Left by holding meetings in the constituencies of 53 Lok Sabha members belonging to the two parties.

Modi told NDA MPs that Parliament was blocked and prevented from passing important legislations because Congress could not do without power. Recalling the Emergency when the then Congress government had suspended fundamental rights, he said he read Indira Gandhi’s reaction to the Allahabad high court judgment unseating her as MP as her desire to cling on to power.

“Par ye ek mansikta ka pratibimb tha (It reflected a mindset),” that surfaces whenever Congress is close to losing power or loses power, the PM said, implying that Congress was not letting his government function because it was finding it difficult to do without power. He further said the party’s agenda was to save the (Gandhi) family while the BJP was working to save democracy.

“Congress’s agenda is parivar (family), our agenda is the nation,” Modi said.

Focusing its attack on Congress and Left, BJP announced that it would target the constituencies of 44 Congress and nine Left MPs to explain the disruptions as anti-development with important bills like GST and land acquisition held up.

“We accept this undemocratic challenge by the Congress and will take it to the people. Our people will go to every nook and corner to expose the Congress, which is trying to stop the growth of the country,” the PM said. Four NDA MPs and one minister will visit each of these constituencies to spread the BJP’s message.

Later, finance minister Arun Jaitley said constituencies of Congress and Left MPs were particularly singled out as these parties were responsible for non-functioning of Parliament through most of the monsoon session.

“Almost all other parties did not favour Parliament being disrupted while Congress proved that it is a disrupter without a cause,” Jaitley said.

Addressing a press conference after NDA MPs took out a march to protest against Congress’s blockade of Parliament, Jaitley also referred to the Emergency and Congress’s inability to do without power. The country would have been spared the Emergency if Indira Gandhi had made way for someone from within Congress, Jaitley said.

The remarks by the PM and his ministers and the march by NDA MPs were part of a larger campaign being unrolled to use the blockade of Parliament and the stalling of GST bill to turn Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as being obsessed with power to the exclusion of considerations of growth.

The resolution adopted at the meeting of NDA MPs said, “The deliberate and forcible disruption of the monsoon session of Parliament by Congress was a cynical ploy to sabotage India‘s economic growth at a moment of historic renewal and, given the international economic climate, rare opportunity and optimism towards India. It was an assault on the aspirations of the people of India, and in particular the dreams of our youth, who are thirsting for jobs, through sabotage of the GST constitutional amendment bill, crafted across party lines over years of effort. This legislation is estimated to add between 1.5%and 2% to our GDP, in other words, India’s economy stands to lose around Rs 200,000 crore per year because of the irrational and unprincipled obstinacy of a Congress leadership determined to promote the interests of a fading dynasty above the needs of our nation.”