Rahul targets PM over ‘chowkidaar’ campaign
BENGALURU: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’S “Main Bhi Chowkidaar (I, too, am a watchman)” campaign on social media saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi came up with it after he was “caught stealing public money”.
Top BJP leaders added the chowkidaar prefix to their Twitter handles after the Prime Minister launched the campaign on Saturday. Gandhi has targeted Modi using the slogan “chowkidaar chor hai (the watchman is a thief)” along with his allegation that the government bought overpriced Rafale fighter jets. The government has denied all allegations.
Ahead of the 2014 elections, Modi likened himself to a chowkidaar who would keep everyone honest. “When he became the PM, Modi said make me chowkidaar. He did not say make the whole country chowkidaar,” Gandhi said at a rally in Kalaburagi in the northern Karnataka. He accused Modi of being the chowkidaar of top businessmen.
State BJP spokesman, S Prakash, reacted to Gandhi’s criticism saying the Congress president was unable to understand the meaning of chowkidaar. “Of course, the Congress party will have a problem with those trying to rid society of evil,” he said.
Gandhi called the Rafale deal the world’s “biggest” and added the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government insisted that the Bengaluru-based Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) be allowed to make the aircraft. “The first thing Modi did was that he went to France with Anil Ambani and changed the whole deal.”
The government and BJP have repeatedly denied any wrongdoings in the Rafale fighter jet deal and accused the Congress of running a disinformation campaign.
The Supreme Court in December rejected petitions seeking an investigation into the deal with France’s Dassault Aviation. The Indian and French government, Dassault, and Ambani’s Reliance Defence have all pointed out that Reliance is merely an offset partner of Dassault and was chosen by the French company. They have also clarified that Reliance will not be making the fighter jet.