Modi, Rahul trade barbs 3 days before Bastar polling

You people must have seen the urban Naxals... If the government acts against them, then you (Congress) try to save them NARENDRA MODI

Prime Minister

the damage Modi has done with (demonetisation) and Gabbar Singh Tax, no one else caused such a loss in history RAHUL GANDHI,

Cong president

RAIPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi squared off in Chhatttisgarh on Friday, three days ahead of the first round of polling i n the state’s Bastar region, a Maoist hotbed, as they exchanged bitter political rhetoric over so-called “urban Naxals” and what each had done for the benefit of the state’s dominant tribespeople.

At his campaign rally in Jagdalpur, Modi hit out at the Congress for being soft on urban Naxals, a term coined for left-wing intellectuals who sympathise with Maoists. He accused the Congress of describing Maoists as “revolutionary” and of ruining the lives of the tribespeople of Chhattisgarh.

“You people must have seen the urban Naxals, seated in air- conditioned rooms in cities, who look good, are in good company and enjoy status. Their children study abroad,” he said at the rally in the town located in Bastar. “If the government acts against them, then you (Congress) try to save them.”

In a crackdown on August 28, the Maharashtra police arrested poet Varavara Rao, activists Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj and civil liberties activist Gautam Navlakha for their suspected links with Maoists.