New Delhi, Feb 11 (NIE): Days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi targeted the Congress for its “attacks on institutions”, Union minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said it is time to protect the country as well as its institutions from “institution wreckers”.

Pointing out that Congress-led governments used to interfere with institutions like the RBI, judiciary and the CBI, Jaitley in a Facebook post said: “It is about time that India and its institutions are protected from these ‘institution wreckers’.”

In the post titled ‘Institutions Under Attack — The Latest Fabrication’, Jaitley, who returned from the US after medical treatment on Saturday, said the past two months have witnessed several “fake campaigns” which failed to cut much ice. He said in West Bengal, democracy is under serious threat and cited the recent instances of denial of permission to helicopters carrying BJP leaders to land and to conduct a Rath Yatra.

Jaitley also took potshots at the Congress. “The Congress party’s stand on multiple issues is self-contradictory. It slaughters a cow before the cameras in Kerala, and invokes the National Security Act against cow killers in Madhya Pradesh,” he said.

Jaitley took exception to those who criticise the BJP for its alleged attack on institutions. The “new emerging breed of institution protectors criticise the government the maximum and simultaneously argue that free speech is in danger,” he said. “They shed crocodile tears for democracy and make every effort to convert the world’s largest democracy into a dynastic one.”

Accusing Congress president Rahul Gandhi of stalling functioning of Parliament, Jaitley said his two speeches on Rafale are based on “personal hatred for the Prime Minister emanating from envy."

“History will record that Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru’s great grandson has singularly damaged India’s Parliament as an institution more than anyone else,” he said.

“It has been left to two opposition members, namely Bhartruhari Mahtab of the BJD and N K Premachandran of the RSP, to fill up the intellectual vacuum that the Congress has created,” he said.

Accusing the Congress of organising loot on the banks between 2008 and 2014, Jaitley said the party is now alleging that industrial loans had been waived. “Not a single rupee was waived. On the contrary, the defaulters have been thrown out of management & Congress’s falsehood was exposed,” he said.

On RBI, Jaitley said Congress governments in the past had been liberal in asking governors of the central bank to quit.