Motion Of Thanks: Prime Minister Modi Sets The Tone For The 2024 Elections
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2024-02-08 07:23:41
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Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
Prime Minister Modi went hammer and tongs at the Congress in his Motion of Thanks speech in both Houses of Parliament. He left nothing to imagination as he highlighted the perceived shortcomings of the only other pan-India political party in India which competes with the BJP. In effect, he set the tone for the BJPs campaign in the upcoming general elections.
From berating the Congress for pursuing dynastic politics to accusing it of flogging the same product (read: Rahul Gandhi) again and again, the Prime Minister also accused the party of fanning North-South divide. He chose to lay the blame of all existing ills in India at Congress' door. Congress mukt Bharat does not attract the Prime Minister anymore as it is a target that he feels his party has achieved, especially after the sweep in the three Hindi heartland states recently. He is now looking for complete annihilation and gleefully used the pitiable figure of less than 40 Lok Sabha seats that TMC chief and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee predicted for the Congress in the 2024 elections to prove his point that the party is finished.
Pointedly, Modi also accused the Congress of not being a responsible opposition party. He used statements of past Congress prime ministers to say that the party is opposing policies that they had approved and trying to promote issues that they had rejected. In short, he accused the party of opposing the policies of the BJP just for the sake of opposition without any principles.
When the Prime Minister speaks in Parliament, he is addressing a pan-India audience. Hence, it pays to attack the Congress instead of the regional parties. The BJP is in direct contest with the Congress in half a dozen states. So the battle lines are set. It is going to be a no-holds-barred contest in which the BJP will attack the regional parties in their respective states but keep the focus on attacking the Congress everywhere else. That will also help in keeping the opposition divided as some regional parties like the TMC and AAP also consider the Congress as a spoilsport, if not a threat.
