Born with golden spoon, Rahul knows nothing about agri: Modi

Manas Dasgupta

Patan, December 11

Describing Congress president-designate Rahul Gandhi as a person “born with a golden spoon”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioned his knowledge about poverty and hit back at his criticism of the BJP government “promoting crony capitalism”.

At a public meeting here, Modi said the BJP was a “friend in distress” for people, while the Congress “posed as a brother only during your good days”.

Reminding people that Congress leaders were “enjoying” in a resort in Bengaluru “and that too for the sake of one person” when the BJP workers and the government stood by them during the days of Patan and Banaskantha hit by heavy floods a few months ago, Modi said: “Teach these people a lesson by rejecting the Congress in the elections.”

He was referring to the Rajya Sabha elections in August when 43 Congress MLAs were taken to Bengaluru in the face of alleged poaching by the BJP to save the seat of Ahmed Patel, political secretary to party chief Sonia Gandhi. Modi said on the day of killer earthquake on January 26, 2001, he landed in Patan from Chandigarh “within a few hours” to “serve the people in distress”.

During his 45-minute address to Patan audience, Modi refrained from raising Pakistan or Mani Shankar Aiyar issues that had taken the centrestage of his election campaigns in the last four days. Claiming that Rahul had no basic knowledge of agriculture and could not differentiate one agricultural crop from another, Modi said: “You are born with golden spoon. You have not seen poverty. You do not know the pain of stone piercing your bare feet on a hot summer day.”

The PM involved the audience for an “open voting” whether they agree with Rahul’s criticism. “I want to ask you (people) who have seen me working for the past 14-15 years, seen me as a chief minister, seen me work here on this land. Do you agree with these allegations?” As expected, the reply came with a loud “No”.