Close on the heels of BJP leaders equating former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to German dictator Hitler, the Congress hit back on Tuesday describing incumbent PM Narendra Modi as "Aurangzeb".
Addressing reporters here, Congress media head Randeep Surjewala said, "The Aurangzeb of the Delhi Sultanate Narendra Modi is busy teaching everyone the lesson of 1975 Emergency.
But the fact is he has held democracy captive in his 49-month rule and has continued to back the rich and the powerful quite in line with his roots considering the Jansangh always backed the royalty, the landed class and the money-lending networks against which the then Congress government led by PM Indira Gandhi worked."
Surjewala asked the PM whether all his 2014 election promises could be fulfilled by merely attacking the Congress and trashing the contributions of Indira Gandhi by raking a 21-month Emergency.
Years ago the Congress worked to dissolve the privy purses, nationalise the banks, and end the zamindari system, all of which had the protection of the Jansangh, Surjewala said adding, "BJP's ideology has not changed a bit. Even today the suit-boot government of Narendra Modi grants protection to capitalists and industrialists," he said.
The Congress launched a counter offensive against BJP's "convenient recall of Emergency", alleging that under the present regime there is a state of undeclared emergency in the country.
"Our Aurangzeb like PM should stop hiding behind the wall of Emergency to escape his failures. He should stop diverting the real issue. And he should answer what happened to his promise of good days," Surjewala said.