Undignified language in political discourse unacceptable: Congress

Talking to reporters here, AICC media in-charge Randeep Surjewala said: "We completely reject and condemn the remarks made by those like Mani Shankar Aiyar and every other person who is violating the time-tested principle of self-discipline in political discourse of mutual respect and adherence to ideas and ideology and not to verbal abuse while fighting an elections, to give due regard to even your worst political enemy as was shown by Congress president Rahul Gandhi on the floor of Parliament.

"The use of undignified language in political discourse will not be acceptable by the Congress, " he said.

At the same time, he blamed the PM and the BJP leaders for lowering the level of public discourse in the country.

"Hatred, violence and abuse is the modus operandi of the Prime Minister and the BJP, not the Congress. We have seen how in the last five years and in the current elections, rage and revenge has blinded Mr Modi in using completely unacceptable, downright insulting abusive language for his opponents. The truth is Mr Modi has seriously lowered the prestige of the office of the Prime Minister in Independent India, a first in the past 70 years. By his choice of words, his anger and by his uncontrollable rage and his quest to seek revenge from every Opposition leader, particularly Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his family," he said.

"As BJP and Mr Modi give sermons to us on political discourse we would definitely like him to answer that when Mr Modi describes and insults the memory of Jawahar Lal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi every other day, is he following an acceptable political discourse or has he fallen out of line. When the PM uses insulting words against Mrs Sonia Gandhi, is that the ‘maryada’ followed in Indian political discourse? When PM described someone as ‘a 50-crore-rupee girlfriend’, is it a remark that behooves the PM? PM’s spokesperson describes the Opposition leader, including Congress president, as ‘Chengez Khan’ and the PM promotes him," Surjewala said.

"Is it an indication that abusing Opposition leaders is the benchmark for a person’s promotion? Truth is that PM Narendra Modi will go down in history as the only PM who decimated, denigrated and annihilated the prestige of the post of PM that he holds, who chose verbal abuse to silent his critics when he has no answers on jobs or failed economy. However, verbal and physical abuse will not prevent us from taking the focus back on real issues," Mr Surjewala said.

Earlier, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar has justified his 2017 "neech aadmi" comment against Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that his remark was prophetic.

In an article titled "On Cloud Nine of Nationalism" in an English daily, Aiyar slammed the Prime Minister for a "dirty election campaign".

"Modi needs to be warned that he's guilty of anti-national activity in trying to ride on the sacrifices of Army and CRPF martyrs in a dirty election campaign," Aiyar wrote.

Justifying his remarks against Narendra Modi, he cited comments made by the Prime Minister in election rallies and interviews on Rajiv Gandhi and Balakot air strikes.

Accusing the Prime Minister of lying regarding his educational qualification, Aiyar asked: "Why lie about one's educational qualifications - or lack of them? Unless, of course, such lying is a compulsive psychological disorder."

The Congress leader also slammed Modi for his "cloud cover helped Indian Air Force in Balakot".

"He [Modi] thumped his 56-inch chest and saw that heavy cloud cover was actually good for the Indian Air Force because Pakistani radar would not be able to penetrate thick black clouds. This is to insult our brave airmen," Aiyar wrote.

Image credit: UNI