NEW DELHI: In a fierce attack on Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a big ‘anti-democratic’ charge at the party while citing big Bollywood names.
PM Modi, while replying to Motion of Thanks in Rajya Sabha on the President’s address on Thursday said the Congress has always crushed freedom of speech in the country.
Starting from Nehru government, PM Modi said, “During Nehru ji’s tenure as the PM, a workers strike was held in Mumbai. During that strike, the famous poet Majrooh Sultanpuri recited a poet. After this, he was put in jail. Famous actor Balraj Sahni was also jailed only because he participated in a protest demonstration at the time.”
“Hridaynath Mangeshkar ji, brother of Lata Mangeshkar ji, had written a poem on Veer Savarkar and wanted to sing it on Akashvani but was banned from Akashvani (All India Radio) for life,” PM Modi said.
Referring to Emergency under Indira Gandhi government, PM Modi recalled the stories of Dev Anand and Kishore Kumar to accuse Congress of dictatorship.
“This country has also seen the period of Emergency and how the spirit of the Constitution was crushed. It was done for the sake of power. The country knows this,” PM Modi said.
“All the movies of actor Dev Anand was prohibited on Doordarshan as he refused to support Emergency,” PM Modi said.
“When Kishore Kumar refused to sing for them (Congress), all his songs were banned from All India Radio. I cannot forget the days of the Emergency,” PM Modi added.
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