Vande Mataram debate due to upcoming Bengal polls, to distract: Priyanka Gandhi in Lok Sabha

'By making Vande Mataram, the sacred mantra of our nation, controversial, you are committing a great sin. The Congress will not participate in this sin', the Wayanad MP said.

New Delhi: Senior Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday launched a scathing attack on Narendra Modi, claiming that he is not the Prime Minister he used to be, as his "self confidence is declining" and policies "weakening" the country.

Seeking to corner the government during the debate in Lok Sabha on the 150th anniversary of ‘Vande Mataram’, she said the ruling NDA has pushed for a discussion on the national song due to upcoming West Bengal elections and to divert attention from the pressing problems people were facing.

She also referred to relentless attack by Modi and the BJP on country's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and said the government should now fix time – 10 hours, 20 hours or 40 hours – to settle the matter “for once and all” and then take up discussions on price rise, unemployment and women's issues.

“The truth is that Modi is no longer the Prime Minister he once was. The truth is, it is beginning to show. His self-confidence is declining. His policies are weakening the country, so what else can he do but talk about the past? Those in the party (BJP) are silent because, deep down, they too are ashamed. Today, the people of the country are unhappy, distressed, and surrounded by problems, and you are not solving them,” she said.

Insisting that a contentious debate on the national song appears "strange" to her, she said one is reminded of the entire history of the freedom struggle and wondered about the need for such a debate.

"There are two reasons for the debate on Vande Mataram today. One, elections are coming up in West Bengal. In such a situation, our Prime Minister wants to establish his role and second, those who fought the freedom struggle, sacrificed for the country -- this government wants an opportunity to impose new accusations on them. By doing this, the government wants to divert the country's attention from the pressing issues concerning the public," she said.

She said Modi and the BJP were insulting the wisdom of freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Rajendra Prasad, BR Ambedkar, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Sardar Vallabhai Patel and Subhash Chandra Bose who decided to fix the first two stanzas of 'Vande Mataram' as the national song. "To call the national song a victim of truncation is an insult to those great leaders," she said.

Alleging that the government wants to hide the real situation in the country, she said the youth of the country is troubled with paper leaks and unemployment while inflation has risen so much.

"Why are we not discussing this in the House? What is happening with reservations, why are we not discussing that here? When it comes to women, big announcements are made, but no concrete steps are being taken to improve their actual conditions," she said.

She spoke about air pollution and added, "but will we sit in this House and only talk about small petty things? You want us to keep looking backward at the past, again and again, but not talk about the future, the present, and the real problems?"

"By making Vande Mataram, the sacred mantra of our nation, controversial, you are committing a great sin. The Congress will not participate in this sin. This national song, Vande Mataram, has always been dear to us, has always been sacred for us, and will remain sacred for us forever," she said.