Congress president Sonia Gandhi hit hard at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for what she termed as “lowering” the dignity of his office by criticising his political opponents on foreign soil. It reflected his “narrow mindedness” and “low-level politics”. She was addressing two election meetings at Kahalgaon in Bhagalpur and Wazirganj in Gaya on Saturday a day after Modi’s meeting at Banka.
Slamming Modi she said, “No other Prime Minister has ever criticised and sullied the image of his political rivals on foreign soil. But Modi has done so, showing his narrow mindedness and low-level politics. When he does not bother about the dignity of India and Bihar, will he be concerned about your dignity,” Sonia said.
Realising that caste matters more in elections in Bihar and reservation is closer to the hearts of the people belonging to OBC, EBC, SC and ST, Sonia attacked the BJP on reservation issue and said her party is committed to the Constitutional policy. He also said that number of communal clashes have increased in the country after the BJP-led NDA came to power over 15 months back.
Terming the 15-month rule of Modi as “harmful” for the country, she said, “Except for a few corporate houses, no one has benefited.”
Sonia raked up RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks on reservation, without naming him or RSS, and said, “There is match fixing going on between Nagpur and BJP. But I want to tell you that Congress is committed to Constitutional provisions on SC, ST and OBC quotas.”
“Put all your strength to defeat such forces who want to divide society, make false promises and later term them as chunavi jumla and who have hurt Bihar’s pride,” she said while asking people to vote for the grand alliance so that a stable Government is formed under Nitish Kumar, who, she said is recognised as a good CM.
Describing Bihar polls as ‘decisive’, Sonia said Bihar is at a crossroad. From here, she said, the future of both Bihar and the country will be determined.
On the special package promised by Modi, the AICC chief said, “PM is trying to mislead the people of Bihar. The package he announced is more farcical than real. What is the truth of this packageIJ Prime Minister, an expert in packaging and repackaging, has simply rehashed old schemes of previous Governments and presented them as a new package. What not he has said to belittle the people of Bihar,” she said, asking people to choose whether they are with secular forces or those which divide the country.
Sonia also charged that Modi was discriminating with Opposition Chief Ministers and States ruled by them and questioned his ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ slogan, asking whether people of such States did not belong to the country.
She said people are battling all sorts of problems in daily life for which the Modi Government is responsible. What actions he took to redress public grievances. Why no attention was paid to the problems of the weavers, she asked. She also accused the Government of slashing budgetary allocations for many social security schemes.