VICE PRESIDENT Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday took a swipe at former Congress President Sonia Gandhi over her “enforced silence” remarks, and said the freedom of expression one enjoys in the country cannot be found anywhere else in the world. Addressing the inaugural session of the ‘Mann Ki Baat @ 100 Conclave’, Dhankhar also hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for keeping politics away from his monthly radio programme, which had come as a “beacon of hope” for a nation that was “losing hope and its world image had nosedived”. He also slammed “an ostrich-like stance” some people take while touring foreign lands and ignore the rapid development taking place in the country. In an apparent reference to Sonia Gandhi’s recent article in a newspaper alleging “enforced silence” in the country under the BJP Govt, Dhankhar said the freedom of expression a person enjoys in the country cannot be found anywhere in the world.

“I am pained and also sometimes feel what has happened to our intelligentsia. Long articles are written on enforced silence. How can there be enforced silence in the country? Such a big freedom of expression you will not find in any other country across the world,” the Vice President said. Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apurva Chandra and Prasar Bharati CEO Gaurav Dwivedi were also present at the inaugural session of the conclave.

Dhankhar said when he first became a Member of Parliament in 1989, he felt he had got a lot of power as he could give cooking gas connections to 50 people every year. “But, the architect of ‘Mann Ki Baat’ has given 150 million connections that too free of cost. This is an achievement the world cannot understand,” Dhankhar said, referring to the Ujjwala scheme of the Government.