Modi accuses Rahul of undermining the PM, mocks Delhi CM
New Delhi: Congress on Sunday dismissed Narendra Modi’s charge that Rahul Gandhi had undermined the Prime Minister’s authority by attacking the ordinance on lawmakers and alleged that the Gujarat CM was “misguiding” the country while “ignoring” his state which is facing flood threat.
“Rahul Gandhi had not even mentioned the name of the Prime Minister. He had only expressed his views regarding the ordinance. He did not even ask the government to withdraw it,” party leader Rashid Alvi said in reaction to Modi’s speech at a rally in the national capital.
Alvi alleged that it was Modi who was “denigrating” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with his remarks here at a time when he is in New York meeting various heads of state promoting the cause of the nation.
The Congress leader accused Gujarat Chief Minister of “ignoring” the people of his state which is facing a serious flood threat. “People of Gujarat need Modi there. It is unfortunate that he is ignoring his own people who elected him as Chief Minister and is in Delhi, misguiding the nation”.
Earlier in the day, in a scathing attack on Gandhi, the BJP’s PM candidate accused him of undermining authority of the Prime Minister and asked people to decide if the nation will be run according to the Constitution or whims of the “prince”.
Addressing a rally, his first in the capital after being named the Prime Ministerial candidate by BJP, Modi alleged, “The pride of the Prime Minister has been brought down by his own party. Congress party Vice President has committed the sin of disrespecting the Prime Minister.”
He also launched a direct attack on Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, saying she has a habit of passing the buck on all issues. “The Delhi Chief Minister has the easiest job. All she does is cut ribbons at inaugurations. She has no responsibilities. If there are pot holes on the roads, she blames municipal corporations. If there is a law and order problem, she blames the Centre. She passes the buck up or down,” Modi said.
Targeting Dikshit, Modi said India could not utilise the Commonwealth Games to project the country as a strong nation. “The corruption relating to the Games cannot be seen in terms of finacial irregularities. The Commonwealth Games scam has robbed India of its sportsman spirit. Such games are a vehicle to show to the world brand India. But we could not do it because of mismanagement. “Sports is a medium to showcase the country on a global platform. As for example, South Korea showcased itself in the Olympic Games and it aided in the country’s development and attracted global attention. Our country has been robbed of such opportunities for the next 20 years,” he said.
He also slammed the Delhi government for the shortage of electricity.
Meanwhile, a major controversy erupted on Sunday over Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif purportedly calling his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh a “village woman” with Narendra Modi terming it as the “biggest insult” of the Prime Minister. “How dare you (Sharif) address my nation’s Prime Minister as a village woman? There cannot be a bigger insult of the Indian Prime Minister. We can fight with him on policies but this we will not tolerate. This nation of 1.2 billion will not tolerate its Prime Minister’s insult,” Modi, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, said at a huge rally here.
The controversy has its roots in a comment by a well-known Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir on Geo TV that Sharif had used this description “dehati aurat” (village woman) during a breakfast meeting with him and NDTV’s Barkha Dutt on Saturday while expressing his unhappiness that Singh complained to US President Barack Obama about Sharif on Pakistan.
However, Dutt on Twitter said, “this (Mir’s version)is a distortion entirely” and that Sharif said “nothing of this kind”.
Dutt said there were bits in the interaction that were off the record.
Secondly, this is distortion even of the off the record, she said. She went on to add that the bits that were off record did not include any pejorative word about the PM.
Mir in the programme quoted Sharif as saying, “It seems as if Manmohan Singh went to complain to Obama about me like a ‘dehati aurat’.
Modi, who made an issue of the comments, said, “The journalists who were sitting in front of Nawaz Sharif when he was insulting our Prime Minister should also answer to the people of my country”.
“I want to ask those journalists, I don’t know who were they but journalists of my country who were having sweets sitting with Nawaz Sharif when he was abusing our Prime Minister calling him village woman, I expected those Indian journalists, the country expected them, to refuse the sweets and walk out,” he said. (PTI)