Sonia cautions against ‘forces of darkness’

“We will not allow the idea of India to be a prisoner to narrow-mindedness and communal ideology,” she says.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi speaks in the Lok Sabha during a special discussion on the 75th anniversary of Quit India movement.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday made a veiled dig at the BJP-led government, wondering whether the “forces of darkness” were trying to destroy the roots of democracy as “clouds of hate and division” were hovering over secular and egalitarian values.

She used her speech in the Lok Sabha during a special discussion on the Quit India movement to underline the contributions of the Congress and Jawaharlal Nehru to the landmark episode in India’s struggle for independence and also attacked the BJP, accused by her party of communalism.

“We will not allow the idea of India to be a prisoner to narrow-mindedness and communal ideology. Today it looks secularism and free speech are in danger. If we have to preserve freedom, we’ll have to defeat forces endangering it. We can’t and we won’t allow sectarian forces to succeed,” she said.

''People have to fight for the India they believe in, which is loved by one and all and which was envisioned by the freedom fighters,'' she noted.

It should not be forgotten, she said, that there were people and organisations that had opposed the Quit India movement and made no contribution to the country’s freedom.

Though she did not name any party or leader in her attack, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh appeared to be Ms. Gandhi’s target. The Congress has often accused the RSS of playing no role in the freedom movement but the latter has denied it.