A visionless election speech, says Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said PM Narendra Modi’s speech in Parliament was an attempt at diverting the nation’s attention from the issues of unemployment, agriculture distress, and dangers along the borders with Pakistan and China.

“The nation has reposed its trust in the PM. It expects the PM to respond with seriousness towards its problems. We expected a vision. Instead, we got a visionless election speech. It didn’t have the gravitas or maturity you would expect of the PM,”Gandhi said in a statement

Gandhi said 450 out of the 30,000 youth who enter the job market every day get employment. “We are creating an army of 1 million new unemployed youth each month.” He claimed agriculture is under stress and inadequate remuneration and lack of government support were breaking the will of the farmers and forcing them to commit suicide. “India faces new dangers on her borders, with frequent ceasefire violations by Pakistan that have taken Indian lives, and a Chinese build-up near Doklam. The security of our nation is at peril,” he said.

“We are happy with the PM to be obsessed with Congress but it is a disservice for our PM to spend so much time on Congress and so little on the future of the nation,” Gandhi said.

Outside Parliament, Gandhi said Modi seems to have forgotten he is the PM and not an opposition leader. “He talked for one hour but did not speak on issues before the country,” he said.

Gandhi added the PM can talk against Congress at a public meeting, but not in Parliament where he needs to answer questions posed to him by the country. Echoing his views, Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi asserted that the PM has said “nothing new and he is repeating” old things.

“People are interested about their jobs, they want to know about their future,” she said.