Glad he is learning to speak: PM Modi

PM MODI, RAHUL GANDHI TRADE BARBS OVER BLACK MONEY, CORRUPTION

VARANASI/NEW DELHI: Slamming the Opposition for stalling Parliament over demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday likened it to the “cover fire” given by Pakistani forces to help terrorists in infiltration and mocked Rahul Gandhi for his “earthquake” remark, saying he has “learnt to speak”.

While attacking Rahul, he said the “young leader” of Congress does not think before speaking and had unwittingly admitted to the “failure” of his party’s reign. On a brief tour of his Lok Sabha constituency, his first since announcing demonetisation on November 8, Modi asserted that the note ban will expose not only the ‘kala dhan’ (black money) but also the ‘kale mann’ (ill-intentioned people). The Prime Minister, while addressing a function at Benaras Hindu University after launching some developmental projects for the pollbound UP, said he had never thought that the Opposition parties would “side with the corrupt”, a reference to the stalling of Parliament. “Many people say I had not taken account the consequences of this huge step (of demonetisation). In fact, the only thing that I could not take into account was the brazenness with which many political parties and leaders came to the rescue of the corrupt,” he said.

Charging the Opposition parties, who have been attacking the government over demonetisation, Modi said it was like Pakistani forces providing “cover fire” at the border when “terrorists infiltrate into India”. Mocking the 46-year-old Congress leader, the PM said: “They have a young leader who is just learning to give speeches. Since the time he has learnt to speak, there is no limit to my happiness.” A day after Rahul accused him of taking money from Sahara and Birla groups when he was Gujarat CM, Modi said: “He (Rahul) had been going around threatening that when he speaks, there will be an earthquake. If he hadn’t spoken, there could have been an earthquake. It would have been an earthquake that people would have had to deal with for 10 years.

“There is no chance of an earthquake now that he has spoken. We can rest assured that there is no danger of the natural calamity in sight.” The PM further added: “I hope

he does not say that I had indulged in some sort of black magic to make illiterate those who knew how to read and write.