Shah serves ‘pakodas,’ hot and crisp to Cong

The maiden Parliament speech of BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Amit Shah can be described as the 'pakoda' moment for the Congress.

Serving them hot and crisp, initially, he targeted P Chidambaram, who had made fun of Prime Minister Modi’s remark in an interview, where he had lauded even one selling ''pakodas.'

Shah said that "those doing so are self-employed. It is better to sell 'pakodas' than remain unemployed. Selling 'pakodas' is not a matter of shame. It is a shame that P Chidambaram is comparing it with begging."

Modi watched with a deadpan expression as his confidante ripped through the Congress. ‘‘If a tea-seller can become the prime minister, who knows one day the next generation of a pakoda seller may become an industrialist," the BJP president said.

Shah, however, admitted that employment is a potent issue. "I am not saying that jobs are not an issue. They are," he said. "It was the Congress government in the country for 55 years. We have been in power for only seven to eight years. This problem (unemployment) would not have become so overwhelming if effective steps were taken during those 55 years," Shah said. Warming up to the theme, he also said the BJP-led NDA government had inherited a "big crater" caused by 70 years of the Congress rule, and that it will take a long time to fill.

He referred to the laudable banks' nationalisation by Indira Gandhi but added that the door for the poor did not open until Modi came to power and introduced the Mudra bank programme under which 10.5 crore youth got loans worth Rs 4.5 lakh crore at low interest rates.

He referred to "Gabbar Singh Tax," a term coined by Congress President Rahul Gandhi, wondering how a tax, imposed by law and over which a consensus had evolved, could be described as ‘loot?’ He further accused the Congress of coaxing people not to pay GST, even though all decisions had been taken unanimously by the GST Council, which also included the Congress finance ministers.

But Shah momentarily forgot Prime Minister Modi's resolve of "Congress-Mukt Bharat" in his 77-minute-long maiden speech.

Shah was attacking the Congress for denigrating the Goods and Services Tax when he urged it not to do something that it may have to repent later, as "today we are in power, and you may be in the saddle tomorrow."

He was piloting a motion of thanks on the President's address to the joint session of Parliament last Monday. Speaking for over an hour, Shah was at his caustic best when he told members of the opposition who had interrupted his speech, "Well, you will have to listen to me for the next six years."

Shah also dwelt at length on how the government has re