NEW DELHI: Modi also trained his guns on the Congress dynasty, while asking the party not to teach lessons on democracy to the BJP. He singled out the Congress for spreading misinformation in the country on the issue of employment. Invoking the BJP’s pet theme of Nehru vs Patel, Modi gave a new spin to the concept of Congress-mukt Bharat, saying that was what Mahatma Gandhi wanted. “Majority of Congressmen had wanted Sardar Patel to become Prime Minister. If that had happened, we wouldn’t have lost parts of Kashmir,” Modi stated.
He also took jibe at the Congress for expenditure on promoting the Gandhi family. “This is the same party that divided India. For decades, one party devoted all their energies in singing paeans to one family. The interests of the nation were overlooked just for the interests of one family,” he said.
He said the party was spreading misinformation on the issue of employment. “Will the Opposition say that the claims of West Bengal, Odisha, Kerala and Karnataka of having created one crore new jobs are false. Official data reveals 70 lakh new enrollments in EPFO of employees in the 18-25 age bracket. As of now `10 lakh crore worth of Mudra loans have already been approved for about four crore people,” Modi said in his 90-minute long speech in Lok Sabha.
Responding to the Opposition barb of him being anti-democratic, Modi lashed out at the Congress, saying: “How can one of the leaders say India got democracy due to Pandit Nehru and Congress Party? Is this their reading of India's history? What arrogance is this? Don't give sermons on democracy to us.”
He added, for decades one party devoted all their energies in singing paeans to one family.
On NPAs, BJP leaders later claimed that from `18,000 crore in 2008 they had zoomed to `52,000 crore in May, 2014 before the NDA assumed charge at the Centre.