- Thursday, February 27, 2025
A chair with Kharge’s name was left vacant at a section of the historic Red Fort in Delhi where Modi delivered his 10th consecutive speech.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’s 77th Independence Day remained witness to a political controversy on Tuesday (15) as the chief of the opposition Indian National Congress, Mallikarjun Kharge, stayed away from the address delivered by prime minister Narendra Modi and sent out a recorded message in which he spoke about the role of past prime ministers of the country and accused the current dispensation of hounding the opposition.
A chair with Kharge’s name lay vacant at a section of the historic Red Fort in Delhi where Modi delivered his 10th consecutive Independence Day speech.
The 81-year-old leader, the first person outside the Gandhi family to lead the Congress in over two decades, hoisted the Indian Tricolour at the Congress’s office in New Delhi — for the first time as the party’s president. He also slammed the Modi government in a speech, another first by a Congress chief in many decades.
It was breaking tradition by the Congress which has refrained from criticism or attack on the occasion of Independence Day, the party sources added.
Kharge, however, said that he could not go to the Red Fort due to an eye problem and that he had to hoist the Indian National Flag at his residence and the party office.
“With so much security for the PM, and then they don’t allow us to leave until the Home Minister, Defence Minister and Speaker leave, so it would have been impossible to attend it,” he was quoted as saying in a report by NDTV.
In a video message, the veteran leader paid tribute to iconic Indian leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and BR Ambedkar, among others.
In his video message, Mr Kharge paid tribute to freedom icons like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Maulana Azad, Rajendra Prasad, Sarojini Naidu and BR Ambedkar.
Kharge highlighted the contributions made by former prime ministers from the Congress such as Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh in nation-building.
He also made a mention about former Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the only other Bharatiya Janata Party politician to lead the country apart from Modi.
“Every Prime Minister has contributed to the progress of the nation. Today some people try to say that India has seen development only in the past few years,” the Congress president said, in an apparent swipe at Modi.
“Great leaders don’t erase past history to create new history. They try to rename everything – they renamed past schemes, infrastructure projects, they are ripping apart democracy with their dictatorial ways. Now they are renaming old laws that established peace in the country. First, they said ‘acche din’, then new India, now Amrut Kaal – are they not changing names to hide their failures?” Kharge was quoted as asking.
Modi also targeted the opposition in his Independence Day speech, especially the Congress, as he said “corruption, nepotism and appeasement” as the three evils that India needed to be freed from.
