‘Distress address… full of mudslinging, lies’: Opposition slams Modi, alleges violation of sanctity, poll code

Soon after the PM’s address in which he attacked the Opposition parties for not backing his government’s Constitution Amendment Bill, the Congress’s communication in charge Jairam Ramesh said that a sitting Prime Minister’s address to the nation has a sanctity to it and  is meant to be a non-partisan address intended to build national resolve and confidence.

“This pathetic partisan and polemical attack – a Distress Address rather than a National Address – would have been more appropriate in a press conference,” Ramesh stated.

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) floor leader in the Rajya Sabha, Derek O‘Brien, accused Modi of “insulting women” and “using them as a decoy” to try and pass the Delimitation Bill.

The CPI(M)’s John Brittas said that no PM has “ever used a national address to openly criticise and target the Opposition in this manner”. “PM Modi has broken this long-standing democratic norm. By directly attacking the Opposition over the Women’s Reservation Bill and likening their actions to ‘foeticide’ and being ‘anti-women’, this speech has made it evident that the BJP is willing to go to any extent to undermine healthy parliamentary conventions and constitutional traditions,” Brittas told The Indian Express.

CPI MP P Sandosh Kumar said Modi’s address was “hollow” and devoid of any meaningful content. “This was not an address to the nation, but an attempt to deflect responsibility through rhetoric. The blatant abuse of the model code of conduct in force in five states, through the use of public broadcasters like Doordarshan and Sansad TV for partisan messaging, is deeply condemnable,” Kumar told the Express.

DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran charged that no PM has ever reduced a national address to a partisan attack like this. “PM Modi has shattered a basic democratic norm by targeting the Opposition and resorting to extreme, irresponsible language. This isn’t leadership. It’s deflection after a political setback,” Maran said.

Earlier in the day, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra called the defeat of the Constitution Bill linked to women’s reservation and delimitation “a victory of democracy and the Opposition’s unity”. She accused the ruling BJP of trying to “become the women’s messiah”, saying that its “PR machinery had failed”.

The Bill, which sought to advance reservation of 33 per cent seats for women in an expanded Lok Sabha and state Assemblies and facilitate delimitation of the constituencies, failed to clear the House Friday due to lack of two-thirds majority needed for its passage.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress office, Priyanka said it was a “black day” for the government, which saw a Bill defeated in Parliament for the first time. “The Modi government has received its first jolt and is therefore calling it a ‘black day’. This jolt was very necessary,” she said.

Priyanka stressed that the Opposition is very clear it will support the 2023 Women’s Reservation Act. “We are very clear—we will say this very clearly. Bring that 2023 legislation and make any change you want, and we will support,” she said.

“What happened yesterday was a big win for democracy… This was a win for the Constitution, the country and the unity of the Opposition. It showed on the faces of the ruling party leaders,” the Congress general secretary said.

She alleged that the speeches made by the PM and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha made it clear that the 2026 Bills were a “conspiracy” to retain power forever.

“The whole conspiracy was to retain power… The plan was to keep power forever. They used women and their reservation as a decoy,” Priyanka alleged.

“They thought that if the Bills are passed, they will do delimitation as per their wishes. If not, they will defame the Opposition. They thought they would become the women’s messiah, but it is not easy to become the women’s messiah,” the Congress leader said. “Women have seen the BJP’s history – We saw in Unnao, Hathras, and in the case of women wrestlers in the streets of Delhi.”

Priyanka also charged that the government wanted to carry out delimitation without taking into account the caste census data. “The women are watching everything – the PR and media baazi,” she said.

Asked if delimitation was the “need of the hour”, she said: “No… A complete overhaul of Parliament, and that too, in the hands of people who tend to have disregard for institutions, who tend to weaken every institution, including the Election Commission.”

Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, took the issue to Tamil Nadu Saturday as he hit the campaign trail in the southern state scheduled for April 23 Assembly polls.

Raking it up at an election rally in Ranipet, Rahul said: “Yesterday, you might have seen what Narendra Modi and Amit Shah were trying to do in Parliament. They told the nation a lie. They said they were trying to pass a Bill for women’s representation. But hidden behind that Bill was a diabolical idea. They were trying to change the electoral map of India… They wanted to weaken South Indian states, Northeastern states and other smaller states.”