Modi a prisoner of own image: Rahul

NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday of being a “prisoner of his own image” and blamed him for the cash crunch, mounting military fatalities in militant attacks, and the Kashmir unrest.

His unbridled offensive against Modi came at the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) meet, which he addressed for the first time in the absence of party president Sonia Gandhi, who is unwell.

“The Prime Minister often asks what the Congress did in the last 60 years. I would like to tell the Prime Minister what the Congress didn’t do in 67 years,” said the 46-yearold Gandhi, tipped to take over the party mantle after his mother.

“The Congress never gave India a Prime Minister who was a prisoner of his own image,” he said.

“We never gave India a Prime Minister who was ready to inflict such tremendous suffering on the people of India to protect his own persona. We never gave India a Prime Minister who based his entire policy making strategy on TRPs.”

He told Congress parliamentarians that the country has suffered because of Modi’s “vanity

We (Congress) never gave India a Prime Minister who based his entire policy making strategy on TRPs

RAHUL GANDHI, Congress V-P

and incompetence”.

His broadside was aimed at the BJP-led government’s surprise move to withdraw 500- and 1,000rupee notes, which constituted 86% of the cash in circulation. Touted as a shock therapy against tax dodgers, counterfeiting and hoarders of illicit funds, the decision triggered an unprecedented cash crunch.

“For reasons known only to the Prime Minister, he confused India’s entire cash economy with black economy. He decided to experiment with the financial future of 1.3 billion people. Instead of attacking black money, he attacked the very foundations of our economy,” Gandhi said. CONT’D ON P6