Dy. Chairman of the Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia on
the sidelines of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in New Delhi on Thursday.
BY C.K.NAYAK
New Delhi: The penultimate day of the three-day mega event Pravasi Bharatiya Divas witnessed a verbal duel between Meghalaya Chief Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma and his ‘mighty’ Gujarat counterpart and Prime Ministerial aspirant Narendra Modi over the achievements of the Congress-led UPA-II Government.
Dr. Sangma took a pot shot at the BJP supremo and praised the UPA-II Government, crediting its visionary leadership ‘for building the foundation for better days ahead’.
“Better days would come because strong foundation has been laid by the leadership,” Dr. Sangma said in an apparent snub to Modi, who in his speech before him, had targeted Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh for his ‘better times ahead’ remark.
Modi suggested that better times would come after the Lok Sabha polls when his BJP-led NDA Government would take over.
The last of the four chief ministers to speak at the gathering of NRIs, Dr. Sangma referred to the ‘revolutionary legislation’ like RTI, which he said was the reason behind ‘visible transparency’, and the RTE, and credited the Centre for ushering in these big reforms.
Other chief ministers who spoke at the event were Kerala CM Oommen Chandy and Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Dr. Sangma was the lone Chief Minister from the Northeast region to speak at the annual event.