New Delhi, Apr 18: Hitting back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress on Saturday said a “desperate and frustrated” PM turned an official address to the nation into a political speech despite the Model Code of Conduct being in force.
The party also challenged him to bring a bill in Parliament to implement women’s reservation within the existing set-up of the Lok Sabha, soon after Modi’s address to the nation, in which he attacked the opposition parties for not backing the government’s Constitution amendment bill.
In a post on X, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said a “desperate and frustrated” prime minister with nothing meaningful to show for the last 12 years, turned an official address to the nation, into a political speech, full of “mudslinging, and outright lies”.
“The Model Code of Conduct is already in place, and it was very clear how the prime minister misused official machinery to attack his opponents. This is a travesty of democracy and the Constitution,” Kharge said.
“Modi ji mentioned Congress 59 times, and women barely a few times. That tells the country everything about his priorities. Women are not the BJP’s priority. Congress is, because Congress stands on the right side of history,” the Congress chief said.
He asserted that the Congress has always supported women’s reservation.
“We were the party that passed the Women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 so that it would not lapse. The BJP could not get that Bill passed in the Lok Sabha. They brought another Bill in 2023, and the Congress Party supported that too. That Bill still exists.
“In fact, it was notified on 16th April, while the Lok Sabha was discussing these delimitation Constitutional Amendment Bills. This was done by the same prime minister,” he said.
The fact that it took the BJP three years to notify their own bill shows their commitment to India’s ‘Naari Shakti’, Kharge said.
“Modi ji should stop lying to the nation. He should implement 33% reservation for women in the existing 543 Lok Sabha seats under the 2023 law. Do not deny women their due representation now.
“Stop mixing up the delimitation bills, i.e, the 3 Constitution Amendment Bills, with the Women’s Reservation Bill. Stop lying to the nation that this was an amendment to the Women’s Reservation Bill – the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam. It was NOT,” Kharge said in his post.
This was purely a delimitation Bill, brought in to create further division and redraw the electoral map in a manner that can only benefit the BJP, Kharge alleged.
He further demanded that the prime minister should apologise to 140 crore Indians.
“Congress has always been pro-reform. Congress transformed Indian agriculture through the Green Revolution, strengthened dairy development through the White Revolution, created our Space sector, made India a Nuclear power, liberalised the economy in 1991, 60 crore Aadhaar cards were distributed before Modi ji took office. Congress passed RTI, RTE, Food Security Act, MGNREGA – which Modi ji repealed,” he said.
“We passed some of the most important pro-women laws in Indian history – from the Hindu Code Bills, which your ideological forefathers opposed, to workplace sexual harassment laws, domestic violence bills, to criminal law reforms after the recommendations of the Justice Verma Committee,” Kharge said.
The Congress president accused the BJP of being anti-women in both action and attitude.
“They have no answers for Hathras. They have no answers for Unnao. They have no answers for the treatment of Haryana’s women wrestlers. They have shielded rapists within their own party. They released the rapists in the Bilkis Bano case. They have garlanded criminals and rapists,” Kharge alleged and added that the NCRB data itself shows that crimes against women are highest in BJP-ruled states.
After 12-and-a-half years in power, in the middle of an international crisis, high inflation, a deteriorating economy, a sliding rupee, and deep public distress, the prime minister had nothing to offer the nation except a political speech, he said.
“Even with the Model Code of Conduct in place, he chose to blame the Opposition, especially Congress, for his own failures, his own betrayal, and his own apathy,” Kharge said.
“Lastly, BJP-RSS divides the nation. RSS supported the British against Indians and wrote mercy petitions to them. Every Indian knows that Modi Ji’s political masters, the RSS, are against WOMEN. They believe in Manusmiti, which encourages DIVISION, and NOT the Constitution of India,” the Congress chief said.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, said a sitting PM’s address to the nation has a sanctity to it and is meant to be a non-partisan address intended to build national resolve and confidence.
Reacting to the PM’s broadcast, Ramesh told reporters that it was a “Congress-abuse address”.
“This pathetic partisan and polemical attack — a Distress Address rather than a National Address — would have been more appropriate in a Press Conference. But as unhinged as he is by the extraordinary legislative humiliation he suffered in the Lok Sabha last night, the non-grihasthi Prime Minister is still too much of a coward to face the media,” Ramesh said on X.
The prime minister has apologised for failing to see his Constitution amendment bill through the Lok Sabha, but what he should have apologised for is his “shameless, deceitful” attempts to push through a “devious delimitation” proposal in the name of women, Ramesh said.
“His niyat (intention) is anything but saaf (clear). It is poisonous… why the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, 2023, passed unanimously way back in September 2023, was notified only late at night on April 16, 2026, after a delay of 30 months. His talking of ‘mahila samman’ is sheer hypocrisy given the way he has conducted himself throughout his life,” Ramesh said.
Ramesh said, among the prime minister’s more laughable claims was that the Congress opposed the Jan Dhan-Aadhar-Mobile and the GST — both “entirely Congress creations”.
Former prime minister Indira Gandhi nationalised the banking industry and laid the foundation for universal bank access, Ramesh said, adding that Aadhaar was launched by former PM Manmohan Singh on September 29, 2010, from Nandurbar district in Maharashtra.
India’s digital revolution was conceptualised and enabled by Rajiv Gandhi’s vision and mission, he added.
“The GST too was similarly pushed by Dr Manmohan Singh’s government and was only unable to pass back then because of opposition from a certain ex-CM of Gujarat (Modi).
“The same CM opposed the National Food Security Act, 2013 and MGNREGA that proved to be lifelines for crores of Indians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The PM is a pathological liar, and he proved this once again tonight,” Ramesh said.
“The Congress challenges the prime minister to move a bill in Parliament tomorrow to implement women’s reservation within the existing set up of the Lok Sabha,” Ramesh asserted. (PTI)
