The Congress on Tuesday said the ruling BJP is just a tenant and not the owner of democracy and asserted that holding the government to account does not amount to criticising the nation.
Congress spokesperson and chief of the party's media and publicity department Pawan Khera also said that the BJP was resorting to "theatrics" and "drama" to divert the country's attention from the Adani issue.
Taking a barb at the BJP, he said the party will be seen as "Jai Chands" in history and claimed its ideological forefathers were known apologisers of the British, after the BJP attacked Rahul Gandhi as "Mir Jafar".
"Rahul Gandhi is demanding answers from the prime minister on the deeds of his friend and a worried BJP is trying to enact new dramas to divert attention from the Adani issue," Khera told reporters.
He termed these actions of the government as theatrics.
Noting that Amit Shah and the "Shehanshah" know that Gandhi will not apologise, but I personally feel sad that BJP spokespersons come without preparation and bother you in the morning.
"It is sad that those who apologised to the British and those who remained loyal to London and who took pension from the British Viceroy are giving sermons on Patriotism to us.
"Criticising the works of the government do not amount to criticising the country. The government is for the country and not vice versa, and the BJP should understand this," Khera said.
He said democracy will only be strengthened if discussions on the state of democracy continue and democracy will be weakened if such discussions stop. "We want discussions."
"I have a suggestion to Shah and Shehanshah that you are just tenants of democracy and not landlords, who are the people. I urge you to remain tenants and not try and become landlords.
"We request the prime minister, the home minister and the entire cabinet to start thinking about democracy and not about their friend," he also said.
Questioning why the government was running away from instituting a JPC probe into the Adani issue, he said even the name of Adani spoken by Congress leaders are expunged from parliamentary records.
"We want to know why a JPC is not being instituted.
"You want to become Jai Chand of democracy, then do not say why they will be called Jai Chands. We urge you to think about the country and not your friend," Khera said, adding these are people whose ideological forefathers have been historically known to be the apologists for the British and and today they are giving us lectures on patriotism. It is an irony.
The Congress and other opposition parties have been demanding a JPC into the Adani issue while the BJP is demanding an apology from Gandhi for his "democracy under threat" remarks made in London.
Parliament has not been able to function due to the logjam for the last few days ever since the start of the second part of the budget session on March 13.
