New Delhi, Aug 15 (UNI) Congress today slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi following his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on the occasion of Independence Day, calling the speech “stale, hypocritical, insipid, and troubling.”
In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh accused the Prime Minister of repeating “recycled slogans” without delivering measurable outcomes.
“The PM was tired today. Soon he will be retired,” Ramesh said.
He criticised the repetition of slogans such as “Viksit Bharat, Atmanirbhar Bharat, and Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”, claiming they have become hollow over time.
“The ‘Made-in-India’ semiconductor chip promise has now been made innumerable times — each time with fanfare, each time without delivery,” he said.
“It has in fact been made with a huge lie – which is Mr Modi’s trademark – given that India’s first Semiconductor Complex was set up in Chandigarh in the early 1980s,” he said.
On agriculture, Ramesh accused the PM of offering “lip-service” to farmers while failing to deliver on critical issues like legal guarantees for Minimum Support Prices (MSP), fair price setting, or farm loan waivers.
“The rhetoric on protecting farmers has become hollow and unbelievable given his history of attempting to bulldoze the three Black farm laws and in the absence of a legal guarantee for MSP, the setting of MSP at 50% over the comprehensive cost of cultivation, or a farm loan waiver,” he said.
The Congress leader also slammed the PM on job creation. “Today’s address was a bland mix of self-congratulation and selective storytelling — devoid of any honest acknowledgement of the deep economic distress, the unemployment crisis, and the glaring and growing economic inequality in our society.
He also targeted the PM’s comments on democracy and inclusion, calling them ironic. “The PM waxed eloquent on unity, inclusion, and democracy at a time when he has presided over and engineered the collapse of our most foundational constitutional institutions like the Election Commission,” he added.
The Rajya Sabha member said, “He has yet to answer any of the most foundational questions raised by the Leader of Opposition over the credibility of the election mechanism and is going full throttle with a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls in Bihar, which has disenfranchised lakhs of voters.”
Ramesh also attacked the Prime Minister’s reference to RSS. “The most troubling element of the PM’s speech today was his name-checking of the RSS from the ramparts of the Red Fort — a blatant breach of the spirit of a constitutional, secular republic.”
He further added, “It is nothing but a desperate attempt to appease the organisation in the run-up to his 75th birthday next month. Decisively weakened after the events of June 4th, 2024, he is now at their complete mercy and reliant on Mohan Bhagwat’s good offices for the extension of his tenure post-September. This politicisation of Independence Day for personal and organisational gain is deeply corrosive to our democratic ethos”.
