Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday launched her fiercest attack yet on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing his government of promoting crony capitalists and displaying "obstinate arrogance", "hypocrisy" and of running the "most centralized government".
After first taking on the government in parliament over vacant constitutional posts, Gandhi later denounced the Modi government in no uncertain terms while addressing her party MPs.
"I bring to attention the deplorable lapse of the government in appointing a Chief Information Commissioner," Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha during zero hour.
"This post has been lying vacant for the last eight months. The posts of the three information commissioners of the Central Information Commission have also been lying vacant," she said.
A combative Gandhi, who had moved an adjournment motion over the issue, said: "The prime minister made many promises to the people on transparency and good governance and continues to do so."
She said the government's aim was to shield itself from public scrutiny.
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Jitendra Singh, said the CVC's post was vacant as the Supreme Court was overseeing the matter. A panel was close to shortlisting names for the post, he added. Unhappy with his reply, Congress members walked out of the house.
In her speech before Congress MPs, Gandhi went several steps further, saying the Modi government had poisoned the political discourse, was "anti-farmer" and "arrogant" and "a government of some people, by one person, for a select few".
Modi, she said, had very little to showcase after one year in office.
"Behind the smokescreen of 'development', the government is providing 'achche din' only for crony capitalists. Under the pretext of 'Make in India', the government is planning to dilute the rights and interests of workers and labourers. Do they make nothing in India?" Gandhi asked.
In a personal attack on Modi, Gandhi accused him of playing domestic politics on foreign soil, citing his criticism of the previous Congress-led UPA government and then prime minister Manmohan Singh in France.
"In Canada, he sank to a new low by referring to the UPA in despicable terms. This outrageous remark on foreign soil belittles the dignity of the office he holds and is an embarrassment to the nation."
The Modi government, she said, was the "most centralised government in India's recent history" where ministers hardly mattered and officials felt paralysed because all key decisions were taken by the PMO.
And in a sarcastic style, the Congress president said the government deserved credit for the "most anti-farmer legislative amendments to our land acquisition bill".
She said the government can be given credit for "transforming our nation into a land where every day we hear of places of worship of minorities being desecrated.
"We can give them credit for making Indians feel unsafe in India and for poisoning the political discourse of our great country".
Gandhi said there was no substantial economic achievement as job creation had slowed down, eight core sectors of economy had registered negative growth, investment in manufacturing was declining, and exports had fallen.
"Truly, the hypocrisy and insensitivity of the government is breathtaking..."
Gandhi said the government appeared to favour a limited set of corporate interests to the exclusion of almost everyone else, and that Modi and his government were still in election campaign mode.
"We have to fight back," she said.
Gandhi alleged that a "stream of provocative comments" from members of the ruling establishment continued unabated against entire communities and institutions of democracy.
"Some in the Sangh Parivar want to revoke the voting rights of a community. Others want to erect statues of (Nathuram) Godse, the man who murdered the Father of the Nation (Mahatma Gandhi)," she said.
And further on Modi, she said: "We can give this government credit for strengthening one man's power while weakening the strength of the state."
