‘Nirav Modi, Vinjaymallya only exports under PM’
MYSURU: The central government has made the economy weak and the country’s sole exports on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s watch were jeweller Nirav Modi, former IPL chairman Lalit Modi and liquor baron Vijay Mallya, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Sunday.
In his fourth visit to Congressruled and poll-bound Karnataka since February, Gandhi took a jibe at the Prime Minister ’s remarks that he is the chowkidar, or guard, of the nation against corruption.
“Only one thing is being exported: Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya. Someone takes ₹10,000 crore, another takes ₹22,000 crore, but the chowkidaar only watches,” the Congress leader said at a rally in Mysuru after inducting seven former Janata Dal (Secular) lawmakers into his party.
“(Prime Minister) Modi has destroyed the banking system. This is just the beginning, now you’ll see how many will leave this country.
And Modi knows all of them,” he said and added that the Prime Minister has ruined the nation’s economy through policies such as demonetisation.
Gandhi said the only business to flourish after note ban was that of BJP president Amit Shah’s son, which grew from ₹50,000 to ₹80 crore within months. “When the Prime Minister talks of corruption, he doesn’t look at his own cabinet, his ministers and chief ministers,” he said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was quick to respond to the Congress chief’s accusations with its leader S Suresh Kumar saying that it was Gandhi who ‘ran out of the country’ every time he faced a setback. He was referring to a 53-day sabbatical Gandhi took during the first quarter of 2015 after the Congress’s loss in the 2014 parliamentary elections.
“Mahatma Gandhi had said the Congress should be dissolved after Independence, it looks like Rahul Gandhi is working hard to achieve this,” Kumar, a former state law minister, said.
The Congress president said that Modi has failed to fulfil his pre-poll promises. “He (Modi) promised two crore jobs in a year if he came to power.
But the country is seeing the highest unemployment over the past eight years,” the Congress chief said in his 30-minute address delivered in Hindi, which was translated into Kannada.
He also accused the Modi government of stalling no-confidence motions moved against it in Parliament.
On March 16, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and YSR Congress Party had moved no-trust motions over a demand for special category status to Andhra Pradesh but it wasn’t taken up. The Congress tabled on Friday a notice for no-confidence motion, which was not taken up either because of disruptions in the Lok Sabha.
“The Modi government is stalling the no-confidence motion as it is scared,” Gandhi said. He also targeted the JD(S) during the fourth leg of his Janashirvada Yatra.
“The JD(S) is in the middle and has no ideology. They need to clarify if they’re with the Sangh and capitalists,” he said. JD(S) leader and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy reacted sharply to Gandhi’s comments, saying the attack on his party indicates that the Congress is losing support. “The Congress is drowning and it needed a truly secular leader, but it is their misfortune that they have chosen a political novice as their leader,” he said.