Congress slams Centre for trying to 'erase' Indira Gandhi's pivotal role in 1971 war

New Delhi: On the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Bangladesh Liberation War, in a press conference, the Congress party alleged that the current BJP-led Central Government is making attempts to undermine the pivotal role of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1971 Indo-Pak war.

While addressing the media, on Thursday, Congress' Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge said, "Today, during the celebrations of Bangladesh Liberation War the incumbent Government is trying to erase the efforts of then PM Indira Gandhi from history. They held celebrations today but there was not even a single mention about the Government of that time, "

He also recalled the words of then Opposition leader Atal Bihar Vajpayee who had praised Indira Gandhi by calling her "Durga" and also alleged that Congress wasn't given a chance to speak about this occasion even inside the Parliament.

"Our Prime Minister is unfortunately so insecure and weak that he can't even take the name of former PM Indira Gandhi. It is nothing but an attempt to whitewash the history but we are not going to let this happen," said Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi.

While speaking over the shutdown of MSMEs, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, "Look at the kind of erosion that has happened for businesses and the Indian economy prior to COVID-19. It is important to remind the government that our economy was halved even before the Covid-19. This is not just due to COVID-19, this is due to the economic mismanagement of the government, their wrong priorities, their de-focus from the MSMEs,"

She further asserted, "MSMEs are the backbone of any economy. They have not been nurtured, they have been ignored and instead 2-3 big businesses have been flourishing under this government. It is a direct result of those policies."

Earlier, Union Minister Narayan Rane gave a written reply to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi saying that an online survey conducted in August last year covering around 5,744 MSMEs in 32 states/UTs found that 91 per cent of them were functional while 9 per cent had closed due to COVID-19 impact.

Rahul Gandhi, in his question, had also asked about the alarming increase in the number of suicides by MSME business owners, on which Rane replied that as per the National Crime Records Bureau, a total of 9,052 business owners committed suicides in 2019, while the number increased to 11,716 in 2020.