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Modi Launches Scathing Attack on Opposition

Modi Launches Scathing Attack on Opposition

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Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Feb 4: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday expectedly used the Parliamentary forum to take a swipe at the BJP’s principal rival in Wednesday’s Delhi Assembly elections the Aam Aadmi Party and said unlike others, his government “lived the spirit of the Constitution,” saving public funds for development, rather than building a “Sheesh Mahal,” a dig at former chief minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal.

Replying to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President for her address, Mr Modi launched a scathing attack on the opposition and said while his government lived the spirit of the Constitution guiding the Indian state, “some people are openly speaking the language of urban naxals” and asserted that those who “declare a war” against the Indian State can neither understand the Constitution nor about the country’s unity. This too was a reference to Mr Gandhi’s comments last month that his party was “now fighting the BJP, the RSS and the Indian State itself.”

“Those who walk around with Constitution in pockets, do they know how they forced Muslim women to live in hardship. We brought in the triple talaq law to give right to them,” the Prime Minister said. He also pointed out that despite the fact that the Lok Sabha did not have a formal Leader of the Opposition in 2014, his government had added the name of the leader of the single largest opposition party as part of the committee that chose heads of constitutional institutions. “Earlier governments used their discretion to appoint the Chief Election Commissioner, we passed a law that the appointment will be via a committee that includes the leaders of opposition,” he said.

He began with a dig at “some political leaders (who) focus on Jacuzzis and stylish showers”, a comment seen as referring to the AAP boss and allegations he spent Rs 45 crore of taxpayer money on luxury fittings and furnishings for the bungalow dubbed “Sheesh Mahal” he had as Chief Minister.

He hailed the party’s landslide wins in the Maharashtra and Haryana elections last year. “The country has seen how we function. We promised jobs and, as soon as our Haryana government was formed, we gave jobs as promised. In Maharashtra too we registered a historic win…” he said, lobbing another swipe at the AAP, “We focus on youth but some betray them. This group, during elections, promises many things but doesn’t fulfil them. This group is an ‘AAP-da’ on youth’s future…”

The reference was to the AAP’s practice of offering an array of freebies, including free water and electricity, a practice criticised by the BJP. However, in the run-up to this Delhi election, the BJP and the Congress have come out with similar offers in their manifesto, prompting sarcastic quips from the AAP.

The PM then deftly pivoted to deliver a jab at the Congress. “In the last 10 years of (BJP rule), 25 crore people were able to overcome poverty. But, before this, for decades we heard ‘garibi hatao‘ slogans, but couldn’t do it…” he said, “We didn’t give slogans to the poor… we gave real development. Till now, we have given four crore houses to the poor.”

“We have done so much for the poor… the President spoke about it at length in her speech. But those who do ‘photo ops’ in huts… they will find discussion on poor people boring,” he said. In a wide-ranging speech targeting all of the ruling BJP’s major rivals, punctuated by vociferous protests from the opposition and enthusiastic desk-thumping by his MPs, Mr Modi also reminded the House, and millions of Delhi’s voters, of the big-ticket announcement in the Union Budget last week.

Opposition MPs received an addition to any reading list they may have after Mr Modi recommended they read ‘JFK’s Forgotten Crises’, US foreign policy expert Bruce Reidel’s book on political and diplomatic emergencies during John F Kennedy’s presidency. The suggestion came as Mr Modi aimed a dig – invoking ex-PM Jawaharlal Nehru, a frequent target of BJP attacks – at critics of his government’s handling the China border row, and followed questions by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi yesterday and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav earlier today.

On the opposition demand for caste census, Mr Modi said his government had without increasing social tensions, by increasing the number of medical colleges and institutes of higher learning increased the number of seats for SC students in MBBS courses from 7700 in 2014 to 17000, for Scheduled Tribe students from 3000 to 9000 seats and for OBC students from 14,000 to 32000 seats.

In a sharp attack on the Gandhi family, Mr Modi said talking about caste had become a fashion in some quarters, except that “have you seen any Scheduled Caste family that has sent three MPs to Parliament at the same time or even a Scheduled Tribe family,” pointing out without mentioning names that three members of the Gandhi family – Mrs Sonia Gandhi in the Rajya Sabha and Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Lok Sabha.

Inke Vaani aur vyavahaar main raat aur din ka faraq hai, (there is a day and night difference in their words and deeds),” he said. “When power is coupled with public service it leads to development, when it is coupled with only forwarding a particular legacy, it ends democracy,” he added.

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