NEW DELHI: Terming his Independence Day address “stale, hypocritical, and troubling”, the Congress on Friday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for praising the RSS in the speech, alleging that the ruling BJP is ready to go to any extent of “immorality” to remain in power, and that several “irregularities” in elections are emerging across the country.After hoisting the national flag at the Congress headquarters, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that opposition’s votes are being openly cut in the name of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar electoral rolls, even as those alive are being declared dead.LoP in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and Kharge skipped the Independence Day speech,drawing criticism from the BJP.The Congress chief said the “most surprising” thing was that the BJP has had no objection to the votes of 65 lakh people being cut. This clearly shows who benefited from the SIR exercise, he said.“This is not a fight to win elections but to save India’s democracy and protect the Constitution,” Kharge said, referring to the Congress’s opposition to the SIR exercise.“Those who are alive have been declared as dead. EC’s impartiality can be understood from the fact that it is not ready to share whose votes are being cut and on what basis,” he said.Kharge also claimed that central investigation agencies like ED and CBI, and the Income Tax department have been used “so openly for political purposes against the opponents that the Supreme Court of the country has to show them the mirror.”In a statement, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the “most troubling element” of Modi’s speech was his ‘name-checking’ of the RSS, which was a ‘blatant breach of the spirit of a constitutional, secular republic.
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