Taking a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Congress MP and newly appointed national secretary of the Congress party, Sajjan Singh Verma said that the BJP and its leaders were emotionally blackmailing people in the name of religion.
Verma, who arrived here on Monday for the first time after being appointed as national secretary of the Congress party, described the BJP leaders as `pakhandi’ saying, “Bharatiya Janata Party `pakhandion’ ki party hai aur iske neta dharm ke naam par janta ko lootni me lage hain’ (BJP is a party of opportunists and its leaders are engaged in robbing people in the name of religion’.” Verma was speaking this at his felicitation ceremony organised by the party at the Gandhi Hall.
Pooh-poohing the claim of development in the BJP ruled states, Verma said the BJP ruled states in the country have not even touched 10 per cent of the developmental works carried out by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. In an oblique reference to senior BJP leader lK Advani’s statements on BJP Chief Ministers and their rangings sometime back, the Congress MP from Sonkutch said four Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States were distributing marks among themselves.
Someone calls himself as number one Chief Minister, while another call himself as number 2, said Verma in reference Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Following a statement of senior BJP leader lK Advani in a state executive committee meeting of the BJP in Gwalior sometime back which had kicked off row within the BJP, State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had described himself as number three among the BJP Chief Ministers after Modi and Raman Singh.
Taking a dig at Modi on his recent aerial survey of Uttarakhand flood devastated regions, Verma said the claim of Modi that he had evacuated 15,000 people from flood affected regions of Uttarakhand, had no grain of truth as rescue operation in Uttarakhand was being done by the Army and the State Government of Uttarakhand.
The Congress leader also ridiculed statement of Modi on reconstruction of Kedarnath temple, saying that there was no damage to the deity there as only wall of the temples have been damaged which can be repaired with an investment of Rs 5 to 10 lakh, he added.