The Congress has used the birth anniversary of former BJP Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to taunt current Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chiding him for not allowing a debate in Parliament on the recent Chinese intrusions.

“Today is the birth anniversary of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He was a first-term MP when he co-signed a letter to (then Prime Minister) Jawaharlal Nehru requesting for Parliament to be convened earlier than scheduled to debate the (1962) Chinese invasion. Nehru agreed. Now MPs can’t even discuss ongoing Chinese incursions,” Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh tweeted on Sunday.

The Congress has consistently castigated Modi for not allowing any discussion on China ever since reports in the summer of 2020 suggested significant Chinese transgressions into India-claimed territory in Ladakh.

Opposition members have created chaos in both Houses of Parliament for the last two years demanding a discussion on China in every session.

During the just-ended Parliament session, several Congress members had almost every day given notices for the suspension of normal business to discuss the Chinese incursions.

Addressing a public meeting at Delhi’s Red Fort along with Rahul Gandhi on Saturday, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said: “This government is snatching the freedom of speech.

Even in Parliament, we are not allowed to speak on important issues. We tried our best but could not speak on the Chinese intrusion.

“The Modi government doesn’t listen to the Opposition. In 1962, Nehru had allowed a debate on China in the midst of war. There was a debate in 1965 also. But you can’t discuss China when Modi is the Prime Minister.”

Kharge said the previous (UPA) government had taken the nation and the Opposition into confidence on major issues “but we don’t know what Modi is hiding from the nation”.

Rahul said the Chinese had captured 2,000sqkm of Indian land “but the Prime Minister said nobody entered our territory”.

“If nobody entered, what was our defence team discussing with the Chinese in 17 rounds (of military talks)? Why are experts and retired generals saying that China has captured our land?” he said.

Rahul was supposed to pay tribute to departed leaders, including Vajpayee, on Saturday after the Bharat Jodo Yatra reached Delhi, but will do so on Monday morning.

He couldn’t visit Rajghat and the other samadhis on Saturday because the Yatra got delayed by the massive crowds and the event at the Red Fort ended very late.

The decision to pay tribute to Vajpayee --- apart from Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri --- contains a political message.

Although the Congress had fought the RSS-BJP steadfastly during Vajpayee’s rule too, it now wants to show that BJP leaders of that time were moderate and more acceptable as they hadn’t attacked democratic institutions and constitutional values as viciously as is being done under Modi.