Union Commerce and Industries Minister Anand Sharma on Sunday took a swipe at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and said that Modi may be a valuable asset for BJP but Rahul Gandhi is a national hope.
Sharma said that addressing nation from Red Fort will remain a “dream” for Modi. “Good luck to BJP, the way the party’s poll panel chief has been conducting his campaign, he may be their valuable asset but certainly a national embarrassment” said Sharma. Supporting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh statement on the question of declaring Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi as ‘ideal choice’ for Prime Minister, Sharma said that Rahul represents the hopes and aspirations of youth in the country.
“Rahul had been elected vice president of the party unanimously. Everyone has shown hopes and aspiration in his leadership. Congress has rich reservoir of talented and experienced leaders at both state and the Centre”, he said. Sharma also took a dig at Modi for his speech in Ambikanagar in Chhattisgarh on Saturday and said “Now you can judge for yourself the mindset of concerned individual, who had got constructed the replica of Red Fort like a ‘film set’ to address a public rally at Ambikanagar.”
“From these acts of Modi, we can say that the country will never be unfortunate and Modi will never be fortunate enough to address the nation from Red Fort, though he will continue to speak from the replica of it,” said the Union Minister. On BJP projecting Modi as PM candidate, he said “Chief Minister of Gujarat has dragged the political discourse to such a lowest level that we can’t answer his rhetoric of such lowest levels.”
Sharma described Modi’s claims as “boastful” and his Gujarat development model as “flop.” He added that the much hyped Gujarat model of development is a flop and his boastful claims being made by him has led Gujarat under debt of one lakh crore rupees. “Picture of rural Gujarat is much contrary to Modi’s claim of development” said he adding that Gujarat has high number of school drop outs. Drinking water facilities are still very poor in the state” said he criticizing Modi’s claims of vibrant Gujarat.