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Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 8
In an aggressive pre-poll pitch on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the opposition’s “mahagathbandhan” a “maha-milavat” saying people would reject an “adulterated grand alliance” in favour of a stable majority government.
In his 100-minute reply in Lok Sabha to the debate on the Motion of Thanks on President’s address, the PM launched a fierce attack on the Congress calling it “dynastic” and said the new voters had a choice between Congress’ 55 years of satta bhog and BJP’s 55 months of sevaa bhaav.
He defended the Rafale deal accusing the Congress of trying to weaken the Indian Air Force when India’s enemies were enhancing their combat preparedness.
“I am levelling a grave charge. The Congress doesn’t want the IAF to be strengthened. The Supreme Court has cleared the Rafale deal but the Congress wants to get it scrapped. I want to ask to whose benefit?” asked the PM as he challenged Congress’s Mallikarjun Kharge’s claim that surgical strikes happened under the UPA too.
“You had emaciated the Army so much that they could not take the decision to launch surgical strikes. You didn’t even buy bulletproof jackets for our soldiers,” the PM said as UPA chief Sonia Gandhi chuckled.
Hours after Congress president Rahul Gandhi called him a coward and dared him to a debate on national security, the PM tore into the UPA ministers for planting stories of alleged Army coup.
“Ulta chor chowkidaar ko daante? The Congress imposed the Emergency but Modi is destroying institutions! Congress ministers destroyed the Army by talking of a coup but Modi is destroying institutions! Congress leaders call Army chief a goon, attack our globally reputed Election Commission, bring impeachment motion against a former Chief Justice of India, intimidate the judiciary but Modi is destroying institutions!” the combative PM said defending his government’s record on farm sector, inflation, anti-corruption, anti-black money measures, housing, power, infrastructure and jobs.
In a message to voters, Modi said the Congress-led opposition’s anxieties were rooted in the fact that a poor man like him had challenged the “sultanate”.
Exuding confidence on the general election eve, he wished the opposition saying “I hope you can bring another motion of no confidence against the BJP government in 2023.”
Unfazed in the face of criticism which he acknowledged now bordered on slander, the PM, in evident swipes on Rahul Gandhi, said, “Looters of the nation will have to live in the fear of Modi. That’s what Modi has been elected for…This fear was missing during Congress governments.”
In a speech dotted with jeers by opposition MPs, Modi reiterated the merits of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax and said the BJP’s farm income scheme was much more comprehensive than the UPA’s “piecemeal loan waiver” of Rs 52,000 crore when the cumulative farm loan was Rs 6 lakh crore.
“You gave a loan waiver of Rs 52,000 crore in 10 years. We will give Rs 6,000 to 12 crore small farmers annually. Over a decade this would mean Rs 7.5 lakh crore,” the PM said insisting that enough jobs had been created under the NDA in both formal and informal sectors and that the recently passed quota bill for general category poor was a move to stem “social unrest”, something the past governments could not do.
Besides a poll season listing of government successes, Modi’s marathon speech was about questioning the opposition, especially the Congress, whom he addressed in specifically caustic terms.
On the larger opposition, he said, “In hating Modi the opposition has started to hate the nation.” On the Congress he said, “The Congress sees things in two time periods–Before Congress (BC) when nothing happened and After Dynasty (AD) when everything happened.”
Modi then went on to attack the UPA time corruption citing Commonwealth Games, 2G and coal allocation scams.
In remarks that riled the grand old party no end, he added, “Congress-free India is not my slogan. I am only trying to fulfil Mahatma Gandhi’s vision.”
Going further, the PM quoted BR Ambedkar as having once said, “Joining the Congress is like committing suicide.”
In conclusion, when Kharge questioned an “arrogant” Modi who said all that he said, the latter cryptically retorted: “Arrogance was what brought the Congress down from 400 to 40 MPs. Service is what took the BJP up from two MPs to full majority...We will be back while you live in your adulterated world...”
PM’s attacks on Congress
*Bank loans until 2008 were Rs 18 lakh crore; bank loans between 2008 and 2014 years of Congress were Rs 52 lakh crore
*Army demanded 1.86 crore bulletproof jackets in 2009 which Congress govt did not provide
*BJP’s anti-corruption drive has led to scrapping of 8 crore fake direct benefit accounts which flourished in Congress times
*Congress and inflation are inseparable; inflation rate under late Indira Gandhi was over 30 pc, we reduced it to 4 pc
*What was the reason of LEDs being so expensive during Congress times?
*UPA gave Rs 52,000 crore farm loan waiver in 10 years of government; BJP’s Rs 6,000 annually to 12 crore farmers would mean Rs 7.5 lakh crore if calculated for 10 years
*Under Congress no defence deal was struck without middlemen; no wonder they lie about Rafale with a straight face
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