Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday took pot shots at the United India Rally that was organised by TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday.
Addressing booth workers of five different cities via video conferencing, PM Modi said that the alliance seen in Kolkata was a unique one.
“They’ve formed alliances with each other. We’ve formed alliance with 125 crore countrymen. Which alliance is stronger? Most leaders at that stage in Kolkata were either sons of influential people or were trying to set up their own children. They’ve ‘dhanshakti’, we’ve ‘janshakti’, he said.
“Ye mahagathbandhan ek anokha bandhan hai. Ye bandhan to, naamdaaro ka bandhan hai. Ye bandhan to bhai-bhativaaj ka, bhrashtachaar ka, ghotalon ka, nakaaratmakta ka, asthirta ka, asamaanta ka bandhan hai. Ye ek adbhut sangam hai. (This alliance is a unique one. It is an alliance of the rich, an alliance of uncle and nephew, an alliance of the corrupt, of scams, of negativity, of instability, of inequality),” he said.
“Jis manch se ye log desh aur loktantra ko bachane ki baat keh rahe the, usi manch par ek neta ne Bofors ghotale ki yaad dila di. Aakhir sacchai kab tak chupti hai. Kabhi na kabhi to sach bahar aa hi jaata hai, jo kal Kolkata mein hua. (From the same stage where all these people were talking about saving democracy, on that same stage, one leader reminded us of the Bofors scandal. The truth has to come out sooner or later, and that is what happened in Kolkata),” PM Modi said.
Saying that his party and his government’s work had given sleepless nights to the opposition, he said that the opposition had already started making excuses for their defeat in the 2019 elections. “EVM is being made villain. It’s natural that every political party wants to win the polls, but it’s worrisome when some parties take public for granted. They consider public stupid and so keep changing colours,” Modi said.
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Defending his government’s decision to bring in the 10 per cent quota bill for the economically weak, he said that he had been criticised for having brought in the Bill at this point.
“If our determination to provide 10 per cent reservation wasn’t strong, the opposition wouldn’t have lost its sleep, that is why they are now spreading rumours,” he said.
Reiterating something that he has said earlier as well, PM Modi said that if his government had brought the bill earlier, they (the opposition) would have said that it was brought in ahead of the recently concluded elections in five states.
“I want to ask all those people who are saying that we brought in the 10 per cent reservation bill ahead of the elections, when is there not an election in the country?,” Modi said.
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Criticising the previous governments in Maharashtra, he said that in their rule of 60-65 years, they had only managed to bring 32 lakh hectares of land under agriculture.
“In the past three years, we have increased that area from 32 lakh hectares to 40 lakh hectares,” he said.
Listing his government’s achievements, he said that earlier India used to be counted as a weak economy.
“Today India is known as the fastest growing economy in the world,” Modi said.
“Earlier, headlines around the world used to talk about scams in India, today they talk about economic development and the government’s schemes,” Modi said.
First Published: Jan 20, 2019 14:27 IST
Source: HindustanTimes