Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre on Friday.

Addressing a gathering at the India Today Conclave 2018, the 71-year-old Gandhi spoke on the issues plaguing the country and accused the government of “assaulting freedom”.

“Today we are presented with an alternative and regressive vision of who we were as a people, what we are and what we should be. This re-imagination is based on a distorted perception of our history and it is a fatally flawed view of what we will secure our future,” she said underlining the accusation against the ruling party of “saffronising” the nation.

“Our country, our society, our freedoms, all are now under systematic and sustained assault,” she cautioned while taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleged silence on many issues.

“India’s democracy is precious because of the conversations and not monologues, accountability, not shunning any form of public questioning and interrogation,” she said.

Reacting to BJP’s charge that the Congress did nothing during its rule, Gandhi questioned if India was in dire straits before the NDA came to power.

“Was India really a giant black hole before the 26th of May? Did India’s march to progress, prosperity, and greatness begin only four years ago? Is this claim not an insult to the intelligence of our people?” she said.

She accused the NDA government of attempting to run down past accomplishments, eroding Constitutional values, trying to drive a wedge between communities and targeting political opponents through probe agencies.

“Political opponents are being targeted through the misuse of investigative agencies. The judiciary is in turmoil. Civil society is being silenced,” she said, adding that “callous remarks about changing the Constitution point to a deliberate attempt to subvert the essence of India that it enshrines”.

Gandhi alleged that RTI and RTI activists are being killed and that Aadhaar is being used as “an intrusive instrument of control”.

“The noise of politics is the music of democracy. Yet that very noise is now being muffled,” she cautioned.

She claimed that the BJP continues to manufacture one myth after the other drawing attention to the party’s job claim.

Stating that India belongs to all of its people, Gandhi urged the gathering to “protect it with all our might”.