PM Modi dares Cong to change 'national' to 'federal' in its name INC

New Delhi, Feb 8 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday continued his tirade against Congress in the Parliament, reiterating his oft repeated point of how dynastic parties are the biggest threat to democracy and suggested the grand old party to change its middle name from 'national' to 'federal'.

PM Modi was speaking in the Rajya Sabha in reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President's speech and continued his barbs against Congress as he had done on Monday in the Lok Sabha.

After stating how Congress had doubted the country's ability to deliver on vaccination for all, welfare measures for the poor by his government etc, Modi said in a direct attack on Congress how one can never learn lessons in a democracy from "those who trampled over democracy in 1975."

"When one family prevails over others in a political party, it is the political talent that suffers. Dynastic politics is the biggest threat to our democracy. I would suggest all parties, especially starting with Congress, to let go of dynastic politics," Modi said.

Recalling remarks by Congress leaders, Modi said some members asked, if there was no Congress, what would happen? and went on a longish tirade: "I would like to state, if there was no Congress, there would have been no Emergency. If there was no Congress, there would have been no caste politics. If there had been no Congress, there would have been no Sikh massacre. If there was no Congress, Kashmiri Pundits would not have been thrown out of their homes."

Modi took on the word 'federalism' as mentioned by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in his speech in the Parliament and said, "People talk of federalism, but they have forgotten, when Congress was in power, they did not allow India's development. Now when they are in opposition, they are obstructing development."

Continuing with the pronoun 'they' (Woh in Hindi as the Prime Minister spoke in Hindi) without taking any particular person's name, Modi said, "Now they are objecting to the idea of nation. If they find the very idea of 'nation' as unconstitutional, why is their party called Indian National Congress? Why not change 'national' to 'federal'?"

Earlier on Monday in the Lok Sabha, PM Modi had launched a scathing attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party stating that the party had not lost its arrogance even when it had been out of power for so long. He also said that Congress seems to have decided to not come back to power for 100 years, and he too is prepared for it.