PM Modi seems to have lost faith of people: Rahul

BANASKANTHA: Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not speaking about development in Gujarat anymore, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the PM seems to have “lost faith” in the people of Gujarat.

While addressing an election rally in Tharad assembly constituency of Banaskantha district, Gandhi said, “It seems that he (Prime Minister) has lost faith of the people of Gujarat. Speak about development at least for two-three minutes,” he said in a remark to Modi.

Gandhi said that since the last 2-3 days the Prime Minister has “left behind all other issues and talks about only two things”.

“During his entire speech half of the time he talks about Congress. You (Modi) claim that the country has been ‘Congress-free’ then why are you giving so much prominence to the Congress in your speeches?” he said, adding that Modi spends half the time talking about himself.

Gandhi said that BJP President Amit Shah “runs Gujarat by remote control” and even the Prime Minister “is scared of him”.

“The Prime Minister seems to be scared of Amit Shah. Listen to his speeches. He does not talk even a word about corruption,” he said.

MODI HITS OUT

Meanwhile, PM Modi came down heavily Rahul Gandhi for his relentless taunts of crony capitalism against his government, asserting that those who had not seen poverty speak in this language.

In the first retort against the Congress president’s allegations, he said, “You say something, may be it is a mistake; you say it again, it may still be excusable, and third time, may be it is a political remark. But you do this again and again for two months. You think everyone is a fool, spreading lies everywhere,” Modi went on.

This was the first public meeting of Modi on Monday. It began two hours behind schedule.

“I went with a begging bowl to every nook and corner of Gujarat asking people to send their girls to school,” he said.

“Was I asking about the education of daughters of the Ambanis? Was I asking about daughters of Kilachand? I went from village to village in 45-degree heat to promote education of the girl child,” he said. “What do those born with a silver spoon in their mouth know about this,” he asked.

“You keep on repeating lies and think everyone is a fool to believe what all you say. I took out the ‘krishi rath’ to every village, was it for the Adanis?” he asked.