Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge pulled no punches on Wednesday, blasting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for messing up everything from the economy to foreign policy and democracy. He shared these sharp views during the opening session of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at Patna’s historic Sadaqat Ashram in Bihar.
Kharge kicked off by stressing the importance of the venue. He called Sadaqat Ashram a key spot in India’s freedom struggle and said holding the meeting there shows Congress’s commitment to protecting the country’s constitutional values. “This CWC meeting matters a lot,” he told the crowd. “India faces tough challenges right now, both at home and abroad.”
On foreign affairs, Kharge slammed Modi’s diplomacy. He claimed the prime minister’s so-called “friends” abroad are now causing headaches for India due to diplomatic blunders. “Our global troubles stem from Narendra Modi and his team’s failures,” Kharge said.
Turning to elections, Kharge raised alarms about voter list tampering and doubts over the Election Commission’s fairness. He accused the panel of dodging tough questions and instead asking Congress for affidavits. “Vote theft steals rations, pensions, scholarships, and the rights of marginalized groups,” he warned. To drive the point home, he recalled that 85 years ago, at a Congress session in Ramgarh, leaders proposed the Constituent Assembly that gave India “one person, one vote.”
Kharge didn’t spare the economy, highlighting unkept promises like creating two crore jobs each year. He pointed to soaring unemployment, the chaos from demonetization, a bumpy Goods and Services Tax rollout, falling rural spending, and growing inequality. “Modi wants people to spend more, but incomes haven’t risen in a decade—just inflation has,” Kharge said. “The rich get richer, while the poor sink deeper.”
Farmers came in for special mention. Kharge criticized the failure to double their incomes and remembered the deadly protests against the three farm laws, now scrapped, which he said cost over 750 farmers their lives. He took a jab at Modi’s recent push for Swadeshi, Gandhi’s old self-reliance idea that helped Congress beat the British. “Yet, we’re rolling out red carpets for China,” Kharge quipped. “Imports from China have doubled in five years.”
Focusing on Bihar, where the meeting happened, Kharge accused both Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of letting down locals on development, jobs, governance, and social justice. He started by calling out the BJP and NDA governments for stirring religious divisions to polarize communities. “They keep communal fires burning,” he said.
Bihar’s woes topped his list: an economy stuck in neutral despite “double engine” promises of central help, no special package delivered, unemployment over 15% driving youth migration, a recruitment scam sparking protests and police action, and farmers hit hardest by floods due to poor management. “Modi promised to revive Bihar’s sugar industry multiple times, but after 10 years, nothing,” Kharge added.
He also spotted cracks in the NDA alliance. “Tensions are out in the open—BJP sees Nitish Kumar as a burden now,” Kharge alleged.
Kharge pushed hard for a nationwide caste census, crediting Congress and Rahul Gandhi for pressuring the center to agree. In Bihar, where 80% of people are from OBC, EBC, and SC/ST groups, he demanded constitutional protection for the state’s 65% reservation quota—something a Congress government did for Tamil Nadu’s 69% decades ago. He mocked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for flip-flopping on reservations and banning caste-based rallies while ignoring protests against injustice.
Bihar’s daily struggles painted a dark picture in his speech: rising crime with robberies and murders, teacher shortages in schools, and a broken health system where hospitals run out of medicines, forcing patients to travel elsewhere.
Wrapping up, Kharge urged Bihar’s people to ditch religious divides for real progress. “You want development, jobs, social justice, and good governance,” he said. “You’ve dreamed of a ‘golden Bihar’—let’s make it happen. The 2025 assembly elections will start the countdown to ending Modi’s corrupt rule.”
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