Samikhsya Bureau
Prelude to the election climate the Congress party in India has taken a pot-shot at the prime minister Narendra Modi by charging him for hijacking the credit for whatever was achieved in last several decades. Making it more categorical the Congress alleged that such acts from the prime minister are tantamount to ‘misleading’ the people of the country and falsification of politics.
Spearheading the attack senior Congress leader and party spokesperson, Anand Sharma, went ahead to list out few remarkable inroads in the field of space research, food production and creation of job opportunities. The Congress has sought to know as what the Modi-led government did in last four and half years as regards job creation, a promise that was in blod letters in NDA manifesto. Rather the country has lost over one lakh jobs last year against a promise of creation of two crore jobs each year.
Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ‘repeatedly undermining the dignity of Prime Minister’s office, Congress party on Tuesday alleged that he is ‘misleading the people’ of the country by claiming everything India has achieved after he became the Prime Minister.
Addressing mediapersons here, Congress spokesperson and former Union Minister Anand Sharma said it was shocking to hear the claims Mr Modi made at the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas in Varanasi.
“We have strong objections to what Prime Minister Modi has said in the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas today in Varanasi. He is misleading the people of India”, said Sharma.
Referring to the Prime Minister’s speech, the Congress leader said that “if one has to go by his claims, India became recognised only after he became the Prime Minister. If he is to be believed, India made achievements in food production to space sciences to manufacturing only after Modi became the Prime Minister. There are questions to be asked of the Prime Minister. If his claims on manufacturing are true, how come we are losing jobs and not creating jobs.”
He said, according to CMIE report, at least 1.10 lakh crores of jobs have been lost in 2018, Investment, both public and private, has fallen by 7 percentage points during Modi’s tenure and added that “I challenge him to contradict or refute these things”.
“The ‘Make in India’ is a sham. What has he made in India? Rather, the thing that was to be made in India is not being made in India — the Rafale fighter jet by HAL — via transfer of technology. And the big statue of the great freedom fighter, Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel,” the Congress leader asked.
Mr Sharma said Modi’s whole tenure was spend in propaganda and added that he spent Rs 6,000 crores for advertising.
“The mindset of the prime minister is unhealthy and a matter of great national concern. He is the principal propagandist of the BJP. He is travelling across the country and using government resources and machinery”, Sharma alleged.
The Congress leader said that the Prime Minister can go for government programmes, inaugurations and other purposes but cannot use the public money, resources and facilities, which are attached to the office of the Prime Minister, to address his party meetings, to engage in political propaganda, which is also abusive.
“He is the first Prime Minister in the history of the republic, who is full of vitriol and ill will towards his political opponents especially to the Congress”, he said.
Furthering his attack Sharma alleged that the Prime Minister and the BJP are descendants of the non-participants of freedom struggle and collaborators of the British.
Even few Modi critics of neutral camp believe that the prime minister has of late shown his new love for legends like Sardar Patel, Subash Chandra Bose and even Mahatma Gandhi which in past years was never a part of saffron’s political repertoire.
“Therefore today they try to appropriate an icon like Sardar Patel. Even the statue was not made in India. This is reality of Make in India. If Mr Modi is to be believed, then India was recognised as a space power only after he became the Prime Minister. But the Chandrayan had left for the moon and Mangalyan was already on its way to Mars before he reached the higher office”, he said.
He said after a few weeks, the code of conduct will be announced with the announcement of the date of election.
“Prime Minister spends the country’s money on travel and abuse the opposition. The country’s money is not meant to abuse the opposition. Election Commission should also consider it”, he added.
(with agency inputs)
