In a scathing attack on the government, PawanKhera, national spokesperson of the Congress party, has said that the BJP is remote-controlled by RSS, an unregistered organisation that decides who the PM will be and lead the country, yet no question is asked to them.

Asking how Amit Shah, JP Nadda and earlier LK Advani were elected to the post of party president, Khera questioned how the RSS chiefs,including the current one, Mohan Bhagwat, have been elected.

“How were Amit Shah, JP Nadda and LK Advani elected to the post of party president of BJP? Who elected Amit Shah? Was he elected with votes? Even if you leave aside Amit Shah, is the RSS chief elected?Is Mohan Bhagwat elected? Then why does it sit on judgment of everyone,” he asked.

“BJP is remote-controlled by RSS, an unregistered organization in Nagpur which decides who will be the PM of the country and who will lead the country and no question is asked to them. But they question a 135-year-old democratic political party that has a history,” he said.

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Khera was speaking to KailashnathAdhikari, MD, Governance Now, on Wednesday during the webcast of the Visionary Talk series held by the public policy and governance analysis platform.

Responding to a question on the leadership crisis in the Congress, Khera said that much as BJP would like everyone to believe; there actually is no leadership crisis in the Congress party. “Rahul Gandhi is the only leader in the country who can speak to Modi eye to eye on issues,” he said.  

He said Rahul Gandhi had the courage to own responsibility of the defeat in the 2019 elections and resigned from the post of party president when it was a collective responsibility of all Congress leaders.

Khera said the Congress has a well-oiled system in place. The party has general secretaries in charge of the states and a general secretary who is in charge of the organisation. He said without systems in place the Congress would not have won elections over the years nor been in power.

While speaking on diplomacy, Khera said for Modi’s foreign policy is nothing but diaspora events. “You cannot have a foreign policy with event management. Modi loves mega events. If diaspora events helped, would China have intruded in our country? The prime minister denied that there was an incursion. Why is Modi afraid of China? He gives a clean chit to China and says there was no excursion,” he said.

Khera added that because Modi is afraid of China, he did not even wish the Dalai Lama on his birthday last year and the year before that his government cancelled an event in in Delhi to honour the Tibetan spiritual leader.  

Khera also said that irrespective of who is in power, foreign policy is a continuous process and does not get influenced by changed in domestic politics. “If one prime minister decided to visit several countries and do diaspora events there and influence domestic politics with his foreign travels, that is his style,” said Khera.     

“People don’t need Modi’s rhetoric now. India needs a change now.”

Asked if India will meet its vaccination deadline in December 2021, Khera said “to meet its vaccination deadline the government has to ensure to daily 86,50,000 vaccinations and procure 35 crore vaccines every month. Since we are not able to match this figure, it is unlikely the government will meet the deadline.”

He said the reason behind IMF projections downgrading India figures is the issue of the vaccine. “Vaccine is not only to ensure that we stay alive. Vaccine is also for our economy, lives and livelihoods; both.”

Speaking on the Pegasus snooping issue,Khera said so far the government has not denied its use of Pegasus software. If it has not, it should come out with a statement to the effect and launch an inquiry.

“Phones of supreme court officers, CBI director, senior leaders of the ruling party as well as opposition leaders, women journalists, women family members of bureaucrats and even RSS leaders getting hacked is a serious issue. The government should come out with a statement that it did not buy Pegasus and in that case launch an inquiry in national interest.  The prime minister is standing with China and Israel but not with his own country. Why,” asked Khera.

On disruptions in parliament, Khera said the Congress is a party with 50 parliamentarians. He said the government does not want to discuss issues concerning the country like the farmers issues, Pegasus snooping and Covid-related deaths. “If they run away from discussing issues of the parliamentary standing committee, how do you expect them to carry on with the parliament session? BJP does not want to run parliament sessions because they will be shown the mirror which they don’t want to see,”he said.