Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday lamented that leaders now got away with lies and false promises even as politics in India had a spiritual basis that took shape during the freedom movement.

Addressing a massive gathering at Shillai in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, Priyanka said: “Leaders come and make all kinds of promises. To mislead you, they say whatever they want. There is no accountability. The media also sustains this false propaganda. Politics was different in the past. There was a spiritual basis to politics. That basis, which valued truth, took shape during the freedom movement. No other country was privileged enough to have politics born out of that kind of a value system.”

Arguing that elders would remember how different politics used to be a few decades ago, the Congress leader said: “Today, money and lies dominate the electoral discourse. Leaders make lofty promises and don’t even mention those promises in the next election after five years. Voters should understand this is not merely about a clash between parties. Elections are about your future. Wake up and vote according to your wisdom to decide what kind of future you want.”

What may have been working on her mind was the lethal attack by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders on the Congress instead of giving an account of their performance.

Priyanka referred to the Prime Minister’s speech in Himachal without naming him, contesting his claim that the Congress cannot give stable governments.

“Which party gave stable governments to the country for decades? Which forces inject instability in the states by engineering defections and using money power to destabilise governments? You know everything,” she said.

Priyanka appeared to be referring to the dramatic change of government in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, and the mass defections in states like Uttarakhand and Arunachal Pradesh.

Pleading with people not to be swayed by misleading claims and lofty rhetoric, she said: “Judge by what one does, not by what one says. They accuse us of corruption while they themselves indulged in PPE kit and police recruitment scams.”

Priyanka added: “They say there is no money for the old pension scheme. But they can write off corporate loans worth Rs 10 lakh crore. Welfare was a mindset earlier. If the intent is there, you can help people. There are 63,000 vacancies in Himachal but lakhs of unemployed youth aren’t given jobs. Jobs come from public sector units and small enterprises. While PSUs are being sold to crony capitalists, MSMEs have been destroyed. You have to decide whether you are willing to wait for another five-year term to solve your problems.”

Priyanka, who later undertook a door-to-door campaign in Shimla, had questioned the voters’ wisdom in the later part of elections in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year.

She blamed the voters for deciding their preferences on caste and religious factors instead of judging a party on the basis of performance.

Priyanka had wondered: “Do problems like poverty, unemployment, disease ask your religion or your caste before visiting you? Why then do the politicians talk about religion and caste?”

The Congress posted its worst-ever performance in Uttar Pradesh.

She has deployed the same approach in Himachal. By recalling the values of the freedom movement and the sanctity of the principle of accountability, she has exhorted the people to make the right choice.