Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi no longer appreciates the people who played a crucial role in his ascent to power.
He also claimed that the BJP is looting the people in the name of religion.
Speaking at a Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra rally in Assam's Nagaon district, Kharge said the PM wants to 'rule alone, worship alone', the way Hitler had functioned.
"Today, Modi is inside and those who put him in power are outside," he said, in an apparent reference to key aides being purportedly left out of the Ayodhya Ram temple consecration ceremony slated for Monday.
"Did one person mortgage all the gods. Who are you to stop anyone," Kharge said, questioning the government deciding on who can be present inside the sanctum sanctorum.
"If you do everything yourself, why seek votes from others, why threaten them? It is not good for the country, democracy, constitution," he added.
Taking a jibe at Modi for visiting various temples in the run up to the consecration ceremony, Kharge said, "For (former PM Jawaharlal) Nehru ji, 'tirth yatra' (religious voyage) meant creating dams, working for industrialisation, for farmers. Modi's 'tirth yatra' is being busy visiting temples." "Why can't he worship at home? These days he is going to the south a lot probably because it is sunny there and its cold in the north," he added.
Kharge said for the Congress, the Yatra is a 'tapasya' (meditation), maintaining that no other leader will walk first from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, and now from Manipur to Mumbai.
The first Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by party leader Rahul Gandhi, was a foot march from south to north in 2022-23. The ongoing Nyay Yatra, also helmed by Gandhi, is from east to west on foot and bus.
"Someone is busy taking dips in oceans or lakes. But doesn't have time to look at unemployment figures, inflation rates and condition of the country," Kharge said in an indirect reference to Modi's recent Lakshadweep trip.
He used the popular saying 'Ram naam japna paraya maal apna' to accuse the BJP of looting in the name of religion.
"Were there no Ram bhakts earlier. Were temples not built. I had built a large Buddha temple, the ninth avatar of Vishnu. There is unity in diversity in our country and they are trying to break it," he added.
Kharge also criticised the government for failing to bring back financial defaulters to the country and face trial, claiming that only the minor offenders who are staying in the country have to face music.
"But the people shouldn't be afraid. We are with you," he said, urging the people to support the Congress.
Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.
