New Delhi: Reaching out to his party cadre in poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused the Congress of speaking “lies” to mislead “innocent and naive” people and insulting Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel by calling his “Statue of Unity” as one ‘Made in China’.
He also alleged that the Congress was playing the role of a “failed” opposition and has now adopted the strategy of spreading fake news about the government and repeating it every day so as to mislead people.
Addressing party workers in select constituencies of the three states and in Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand through video conferencing, he asked every BJP worker to fight against Congress’ tactics and expose its lies.
“The Congress as government was corrupt and a failure, which is known to every citizen. In the last four years, the Congress has only spread lies, it has become arrogant, it has drifted away from the people, it has become insensible and it has failed to perform as an opposition,” Modi said.
He was asked what the party workers should do to deal with the false and baseless allegations being made by the opposition.
The Prime Minister said the Congress’ only agenda is to throw muck on others, spread lies and repeat them loudly and mislead people.
“They spread lies on Statue of Unity that it is Made in China. I saw false information in which the Congress President (Rahul Gandhi) equated the Sardar Patel statue with shoes Made in China,” he said.
“They are taking Sardar Patel’s name like this. All these years, they have disrespected Sardar Patel,” he said, adding: “How far they will go to express their disliking for Sardar Patel?”
Modi’s remarks came two days after Gandhi while addressing a public rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna on Thursday said that the statue being built for him in Gujarat is “Made in China” like the Made in China written on mobile phones, shirts and shoes.
“If you look at their behaviour over the last few days, you will all see the canards they are spreading. Remember, when the government brought the poor of the country closer to bank and banking services, they spread the lie that their money is not safe in banks.
“Everyday they plan and everyday they spread lies. Their motive is to mislead the people of the country, they want to create an atmosphere of fear to do politics,” he alleged.
Modi also asked his party workers to do in-depth research on the issues raised by the Congress to give them a befitting reply. He asked them to defend the government and party works through social media platforms and the NaMo app.
Modi said the Congress had no issue left and had to spread lies and create a state of pessimism if they want to win elections.
“They have a long list of lies… But you will find that in the last few days, their lies are being exposed,” he said.
“It is important not only to tell people about the work that we have done but also remind the about the state of the country during the Congress rule which people may not remember,” Modi said adding only then people would realise the change that has been brought over the last four years.
Later, in a bitter attack on the Congress the Prime Minister said that the partys “chhoti soch” (narrow mindedness) was stopping it from seeing any merit in celebrating the 2016 cross-LoC surgical strikes on terrorist launch pads.
“We all know the attitude of the Congress on surgical strikes. They keep raising questions over surgical strikes even today, opposing the government and opposing the nation’s armed forces? Also doubting the armed forces’ valour and courage?” he said while addressing the BJP workers in Rajasthan’s Chittorgarh through video conferencing.
“In their bid to oppose the government, they began opposing the nation. This antagonism has become the character of the Congress party,” he added.
Responding to a question by a BJP worker, Modi said that the opposition had even questioned the utility of the Pokhran-II nuclear tests and the Congress party did not even see any merit in observing the Kargil Vijay Diwas.
“The Congress does not observe the Kargil Vijay Diwas even today. One of their leaders said they could not see any reason to celebrate the Kargil victory as the war was fought on India’s land, that this victory is meaningless. They said it was an NDA-era war and so NDA could celebrate it. Such narrow mindedness, lowly thinking,” Modi said.
He also attacked Congress President Rahul Gandhi for meeting the Chinese Ambassador at the height of the 73-day Doklam stand-off with that nation last year.
“The Congress President, without taking anyone into confidence, met the Chinese ambassador during Doklam episode. If the Congress President wanted to know something on Doklam, he could have asked the External Affairs Minister. But, he was more interested in knowing the Chinese perspective,” he said.
The government is observing the second anniversary of the surgical strikes — conducted by the special forces on the intervening night of September 28-29 in 2016 — as a three-day ‘Parakram Parv’ at 53 locations in 51 cities across India. (IANS)
