Mudslinging between the Congress and the BJP continued on Tuesday as Narendra Modi took on the Congress and claimed that it was Mahatma Gandhi’s wish to abolish the party after independence.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier said that the opposition should not just talk about ‘great men’ but also practice what they have preached. Replying to the Prime Minister’s statement, Modi said, “Mahatma Gandhi wanted the Congress to be abolished after independence.”
On the issue of inflation, Modi said that during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA period, India had an inflation level of 3.5 percent, but that in spite of having an economist Prime Minister at the helm of affairs, inflation continues to hover around 11 percent at present.
Modi took on the Congress by saying that there were more than 800 people living in the slums near Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s residence, but the area had just two public toilets and that there were 3000 people residing in the slums near the Prime Minister’s residence, but the area had no more than eight public toilets. He accused Rahul Gandhi of not bothering to see to it that some additional public toilets were constructed for the poor residing next to his residence.
The BJP prime ministerial candidate went on to accuse Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of failing to construct toilets for the poor, even though the slums were under her constituency.
Modi took a dig at Dikshit by saying that despite having spent Rs. 3,900 crore, Yamuna still resembled a drain and that the Sabarmati Riverfront project in Gujarat was done at a cost of Rs. 900 crore.
He said that the BJP had successfully supplied water to 9000 parched villages, but that Delhi still required water tankers.
“But I do not belong to Delhi’s elite club, rather I am a thorn in their eyes,” Modi said.
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