Days after congress chief Rahul Gandhi led the opposition attack on Prime Minster Narendra Modi over demonetization, the latter launched a fierce counter-attack against the Gandhi family on Monday, saying he doesn’t need a certificate of honesty from the mother-son duo who themselves are out on bail.
The Gandhis have obtained bail in the National Herald case in which they were allegedly involved in financial irregularities within the company.
While addressing an election rally in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur which is going to polls on November 20, Modi also said Congress’s “politics begins and ends with one family”.On the second anniversary of demonetisation on November 8, Rahul Gandhi slammed PM Modi for favouring his suited-booted friends instead of the common person. On November 8, 2016, in an unprecedented televised address, PM Modi had announced that banknotes with denominations of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 would no longer be valid.
On Monday, attacking the Gandhis for “seeking account of demonetisation”, Modi asked “whether the mother-son duo, who is out on bail for financial irregularities, would give him certificate of honesty”.Alluding to Rajiv Gandhi’s remark, Modi said demonetization “brought back the 85 paise which were disappearing” due to corruption.
Congress never got a leadership which worked with a resolution of “living or dying for the welfare of the nation”. Chhattisgarh may have taken 50 years to attain the present level of development had it still been ruled by the Congress, he said.
“And there is a reason for it. Their politics begins and ends with one family, while our politics begins from the huts of the poor,” he told the gathering.
Modi said people ask him from where was he getting the money for developmental works. “It (money) is very much available,” he added.
“The money is yours. Earlier it was hidden under someone’s bed, in cupboards. It all came out after demonetisation was announced,” he said.
Without naming the Congress, Modi said its leaders were “disconnected” from the aspirations of people.
“Hence, they [Congress leaders] would give slogans, but they did not have policies and intentions to realise. Neither did the Congress get a leadership which worked with the resolution of living or dying for welfare of the nation,” he said.
He also targeted the Congress president, saying when Congress released its 36-point manifesto for Chhattisgarh polls, ‘Naamdaar’ [Rahul Gandhi] was referred to as ‘Sir’ 150 times which shows he is more important for them [Congress] than Chhattisgarh.
The BJP is for development and it was due to this commitment that the Opposition is unable to understand how to compete with ruling party in elections, Modi said.
