Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a series of rallies on Sunday, attacking the Congress made sarcastic comments one after the other pulling down the party. The BJP and Congress have recently been engaged in a feud in wake of the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections.

While the Congress is attacking the ruling JP and Narendra Modi over demonetization, GST and other failures of the government, BJP also has not left any stone unturned to bring down the Congress.

Narendra Modi on Sunday addressed multiple rallies in Bharuch, Surendranagar, and Rajkot. The recent matter taken up by the BJP to attack the Congress is the elections being held in the party for the elevation of Rahul Gandhi as the Party President. Modi lashed out at the Congress party accusing it of dynasty politics, dividing people on caste, religious lines, and their ‘misplaced priorities.

Taking a dig at the opposition fro the Presidential elections in the party, the Prime Minister alleged that the party has a history of rigging the elections. While addressing the rally in Bharuch, he said that “The Congress changes colour time and again, creates a wall between brothers, it wants to make urban areas fight with rural areas of the country, illiterate fight with literates and poor fight with the rich.” The Prime Minister also accused the Congress of dividing the people and making them fight with each other. In wake of the newfound friendship with the community leaders like Hardik Patel, Jignesh Mewani, and Alpesh Thakor, Modi said that “They keep you busy in fighting with each other. You may die, but the Congress will eat malai (cream).”

He also made attacks on other Congress leaders, during his rally in Bharuch, for criticising the moves of the Modi government regarding the steps taken for the development of India. Referring to the comments made by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram, on the bullet train project, Modi said that the Congress had dropped to a very low level by opposing development projects like the bullet train. Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram during their recent visit to Gujarat had passed comments on the bullet train project saying that it was among the NDA government’s “misplaced priorities”.

Taking a dig at the promises made by the previous UPA government under the leadership of Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister said that “Dr Manmohan Singh ji, your government had made an announcement before 2012 (Gujarat Assembly) elections from Delhi about the bullet train, but your talks with Japan did not go down well as the loan Japan was offering we could not afford.”

Narendra Modi, further boasted that his government had accomplished what the Manmohan Singh government could not. He said that his government negotiated the loan at a very low-interest rate and the work on the bullet train has started.

Further pulling down on the opposition, Narendra Modi said that there is nothing wrong in the Congress opposing the BJP but the party should not fall down to such a low level. “My problem is, you can oppose the BJP but why to stoop to such a low level that you are opposing development of the country. We say, there is no other way than development. We have wasted 70 years in the fight over of casteism, in dynastic politics, in yours and mine, but now the country is determined to go on the path of development,” he said.

While addressing the gathering in Surendranagar, the Prime Minister made scathing attacks on the Congress for its election process for the new party President. He said that “An election is going on in the Congress party for its President. What the result will be everybody knows.” He also underlined the criticism being done by the member of the Congress party only. He said that a Congress member named Shexad Poonawala has alleged that the elections are rigged and raised questions about its process. He attacked the party for boycotting Poonawala, for criticising the party’s presidential elections. He also added that if the party cannot practice democracy in the part itself how can the people of India accept such a party to practice democracy in the nation.

“They keep on muttering words like tolerance, tolerance, tolerance… but the party has brought out a diktat to silence this youth. The party has gagged him from all WhatsApp groups. He has been collectively boycotted by that party. If you do not have democracy at home, how can you practice it in the country?” Modi questioned.

Accusing the party of always rigging the elections, Modi said that the Congress had earlier also tactfully played with the elections and its results. He said that “Sardar Patel got more votes than Jawaharlal Nehru when the Congress party had (then) met to decide who will be the prime minister of the country. But that the election was rigged and Nehru won.” He further claimed that it was not just once that the party had played such games, but during the time of Morarji Desai also Congress had done the same thing.

Targetting the party for not doing anything for the development of the people for the last 70 years, Modi said that what the Congress had not done, BJP did for the people. Boasting about the achievements of his government, Modi said that “his government has recently taken steps to delist bamboo from the tree category and classified it as a grass so that the tribal people can grow it and sell it in forest areas.” He also mocked Rahul Gandhi for the comments made by the Congress leader regarding the potatoes. A few days back a video had gone viral on the social media which showed Rahul Gandhi saying that such a machine will be created that you put potato from one side, and will get gold from the other side.

Attacking the Congress leader on this Modi said that “Those who do not know what is to be done with potato how would they know what is to be done with bamboo.” But the reality of the video was, it was not the statement of Rahul, it was a statement said by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself, which Rahul was only repeating and the video was edited which showed as if Rahul had made the statement.

During his rallies, Modi also pulled down on Rahul Gandhi, who has been intensively campaigning in Gujarat, trying to give a tough competition to the BJP. Rahul, in one of his rallies, had pointed out that Narendra Modi had given a vast tract of land to an industrialist in Mundra of Kutch district. Referring to Rahul’s allegation of Modi giving land to the industrialists, the Prime Minister said that “One leader during his speech said Modi gave 48,000 crore acres of land to an industrialist. The area he is talking about is three times the size of land available on the earth. I don’t know what to do… to laugh or cry.” Addressing the rally in Rajkot, mocking at the Congress leader Modi said that “What can you expect from the Congress when the person expected to lead the party cannot understand such basic things.”

The Prime Minister also did not miss the opportunity to attack the Congress, regarding the recent meme controversy that created a row between BJP and Congress. He said that the opposition party was using abusive language against him. Boasting about himself that it was the values that he had and the Congress lacked that the party fell to such low level to criticise him. “It is their ‘sanskar’ (values). I have not studied in an English medium school but in a government school where they taught me how to lead life,” Modi said.

During the campaigning in Gujarat, Narendra Modi also did not forget to mention about the letter that was issued last month by Thomas Macwan, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Gandhinagar, appealing the Christians to pray to save the country from “nationalist forces”. Boasting about the principles of his government, Modi said that he and his government were motivated by the feeling of patriotism and this helped them to serve the people of India and help them, regardless of them belonging to any religion. He said that “I was shocked to see a religious person releasing a ‘fatwa’ (diktat) saying uproot the nationalist forces. It is the nationalism that guides us to help every Indian in any part of the world.”

Further supporting his statement he also put forth many examples when the central government had brought back Christian missionaries as well as nurses stranded in conflict zones across the world. “Along with Indians, we have rescued citizens of almost 40 countries from Yemen, as they were stranded there due to war. We did not see their religion or language they speak. It was our nationalism and humanitarian values which guided us. Our nurses from Kerala, mostly Christians, were stranded in Iraq. They were in the custody of terrorists. Can the prime minister or any citizen of India sleep in such situation, when our daughters are in custody of terrorists?” Modi said.

Narendra Modi also highlighted how his government did everything possible and utilized all resources to bring back Keralite priest Tom Uzhunnalil who was freed after being kept in captivity suspectedly by the ISIS for 18 months in strife-torn Yemen.