Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been recalling the past to hide his “shortcomings” and added that there is an “undeclared emergency” in the country under his government.

His remarks came after the Prime Minister took a jibe at the Congress on the 49th anniversary of the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on 25th June, 1975.

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The Congress chief in an apparent reference to Prime Minister’s Emergency remark in a post on X said, “Narendra Modi ji, the country is looking towards the future, but you keep recalling the past to hide your shortcomings.”

He alleged that there has been an “undeclared emergency” in the country since the last 10 years under his rule and it has dealt a deep blow to the Constitution and democracy.

“Breaking parties, toppling elected governments through backdoors, misusing the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, Income Tax on 95 per cent Opposition leaders, putting even Chief Ministers in jail, and spoiling the level playing field by using power before elections. Is it not an undeclared emergency? Is this not an undeclared emergency?,” the Congress president said.

Kharge, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha further said, “Modi ji talks about consensus and cooperation, but his actions are opposite to that. 146 Opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament and the three laws to change the criminal justice system- the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023 were passed. Where was the consensus when it was passed?”

“Be it demonetisation, hastily implemented lockdown, or the law on Electoral Bonds, there are hundreds of such examples on which the Modi government did not use consensus/cooperation at all,” he said.

Earlier in a post on ‘X’, the Prime Minister said, “Today is a day to pay homage to all those great men and women who resisted the Emergency. The dark days of emergency remind us of how the Congress party subverted basic freedoms and trampled over the Constitution of India which every Indian respects greatly.”