Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Saturday took a veiled dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre after former British prime minister Boris Johnson, in a surprising move, quit as an MP after being told by a parliamentary committee that he will be sanctioned for misleading the House over lockdown-breaking parties at Downing Street during his premiership.
Drawing a comparison between the British and Indian Parliament, Ramesh said, “Imagine if we were a truly functional Parliamentary democracy, like we used to be before the so-called Achhe Din was unleashed on us.”
Before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had extensively used the “acche din” (good days) slogan.
“A Parliamentary Committee in UK investigated and concluded that PM Boris Johnson lied to Parliament. He has now resigned as MP and quit politics, he says for now. There are some other PMs who provide the Parliament and the nation with a daily dose of TruthFree sweeteners. Imagine if they were to be held accountable for their lies, distortions, fabrications and silences on burning national issues. Imagine if we were a truly functional Parliamentary democracy, like we used to be before the so-called Achhe Din was unleashed on us,” Ramesh tweeted.
Boris Johnson resigns as UK MP
Johnson, 58, had been under investigation by a parliamentary inquiry looking into whether he misled the House of Commons about lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Johnson’s decision came on Friday as he received a confidential letter from the MP-led privileges Committee over the crucial matter. Johnson accused the Commons inquiry of attempting to “drive me out”.
In a statement, he said: “They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons.”
Earlier on Friday, he received a copy of the yet-to-be-published report, which he claimed was “riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice”.
(With inputs from agencies)
