Congress that imposed Emergency is now crying foul that agencies are being misused: Nirmala Sitharaman

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday hit out at the Opposition Congress and remarked that the party that imposed the Emergency was now crying foul that the BJP was misusing Central agencies.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday hit out at the Opposition Congress and remarked that the party that imposed the Emergency was now crying foul that the BJP was misusing Central agencies.

At a press conference in Bengaluru, Ms. Sitharaman ridiculed the Congress for imposing the Emergency and suspending all civil rights in 1975.

“The BJP has a strong connect with Karnataka, as our leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani were arrested and kept in Bengaluru during the Emergency. The Congress that arrested all the Opposition leaders, extended the term of the Lok Sabha illegally by a year during which time key amendments to our Constitution were passed. But the party is now crying foul that we are misusing Central agencies,” she said.

This comes a day after Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah alleged that “wary of defeat, the BJP had dispatched over 1,000 Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials to Karnataka to raid Congress leaders and candidates”.

Fourteen Opposition parties, including the Congress, had to withdraw their public interest litigation over the alleged misuse of Central agencies to target them after the Chief Justice of India said politicians enjoyed no special immunity, on Wednesday. 

Ms. Sitharaman, also a Rajya Sabha member elected from the State, claimed that Karnataka held a special place for the BJP and the party had been “responding best” to the needs of the State. “For instance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited Karnataka 32 times since 2015 and seven times already in 2023 alone,” she said. She went on to list a series of infrastructure projects and investments made by the Union government in the State, including “over ₹1 lakh crore on highways”, “unprecedented investments on railways”, and “modernisation and mechanisation of Mangaluru port that will help import natural gas and bolster Pradhan Mantri Ujwala Yojana”. 

She claimed the “double-engine BJP sarkara” had provided the State the benefit of a “good, well-planned economic development, without differentiating among people and by taking everybody along”.