Modi takes digs at Rahul over ‘beat with sticks’ rally remark

“I have been speaking for 30-40 minutes now, but it is only now that the current has reached there. Some tubelights work like this.” NARENDRA MODI, Prime Minister

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi singled out Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during his speech in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, referring to a speech by him during the Delhi election campaign in which the former Congress president suggested that the unemployed young people may one day hit Modi with sticks if they did not get jobs.

Without naming Gandhi, Modi said he was happy to get the forewarning after seeing an Opposition leader’s “manifesto”.

“I heard one leader’s manifesto yesterday. He said ‘we will beat Modi with a stick in six months’. I can imagine that it is a difficult prospect, so it will take six months to prepare,” Modi said during his reply to the Motion of Thanks by President Ram Nath Kovind.

“I have decided that in these six months, I will do many more surya namaskars. Over the last 20 years or so, I have been abused so badly that I have made myself abuse-proof ... I will do so many surya namaskars that my back will be strong enough to tolerate such beatings...therefore, I am grateful that they have announced it in advance,” Modi added sarcastically , drawing loud cheers and laughter from the treasury benches.

When Gandhi stood up and tried to say something, Bharatiya Janata Party lawmakers shouted back, asking him to sit down.

The PM looked at the clock and continued: “I have been speaking for 30-40 minutes now, but it is only now that the current has reached there. Some tubelights work like this.”

Outside Parliament, Gandhi hit back at the PM while speaking to reporters about his speech in the Lower House. “Youngsters saw that the PM could not give a reply [to the youth on employment],” he said, adding that the Prime Minister was distracting people from the real issues.

Modi also took several digs at Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the party’s floor leader in the Lok Sabha, for frequently rising from his seat and interrupting him.

“Every time I see and listen to Adhir babu, I feel like congratulating Kirin Rijiju, who has run the government’s Fit India campaign. Adhir ji doesn’t only talk, he also does gym. What can be a greater advertisement for Fit India?”

Responding to Chowdhury on the issue unemployment, Modi said he will resolve unemployment in the country but not his and that of his party.

Congress leader Manish Tewari later described the speech as “oscillating between stand-up comedy, half-truths and rank communalism”.