PM Modi feeling ground slipping beneath his feet: Kharge

WEST BENGAL: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said that Prime Minister Modi felt the ground slipping from beneath his feet in the polls.

Addressing a public rally here today, Kharge paid glorious tributes to veteran Congress leader ABA Ghani Khan Choudhury, who he said, always stood by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when she brought revolutionary laws like the nationalisation of banks.

Kharge said Modi spoke a language that did not behove a Prime Minister. He observed that the way Modi was speaking showed that he had started feeling insecure, quoting an Urdu couplet, “na raj Khatre mein hai, na Hindu Khatre mein, sirf Sultan Khatre mein hai”, relating it to Modi’s insecurity.

Accusing Modi of spreading lies, Kharge pointed out how he was saying that Pakistan wants Rahul Gandhi to become Prime Minister and calls him a Shahzada. “Don’t talk like this”, he told Modi in clear and categorical terms while warning him, “It is hate speech. Don’t instigate people”.

Alleging that Modi and the BJP were dangerous people out to divide the country, The Congress president cautioned the Prime Minister against instigating people against each other. He alleged that Modi and the RSS were trying to make Hindus fight against the Muslims and one case against the other. He asked Modi not to do that telling him that he was making hate speeches.

He took a jibe at the BJP and Modi for trying to preach patriotism and nationalism to the Congress. He asked, has anyone from the Jan Sangh gone to the gallows while fighting for the freedom of the country and they dare to teach patriotism to the Congress?

Kharge alleged that the RSS was opposed to the bank nationalization also, which brought the poor and the farmers out of the moneylenders’ clutches.

Kharge reiterated his charge against Modi and the BJP that they were intimidating opposition leaders by accusing them of corruption threatening them with cases and then inducting them into the party. He disclosed that one former Congress Chief Minister Ashok Chavan had told them (the Congress party) how much he was harassed and threatened and he had to join the BJP.

Kharge said Modi does not do anything other than abuse Congress, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, and Pandit Nehru. He told him, if democracy has survived in India it is because of Nehru and Ambedkar.

He reiterated his charge that Modi was a master of all liars referring to his fake promises like depositing Rs 15 lakhs in every Indian’s bank accounts or generating 2 crore jobs every year and doubling the income of farmers.

Listing the Congress party’s guarantees, Kharge said, it will fill 30 lakh vacancies pending in the government departments immediately. For the farmers, he said, the loans will be waived off and there will be a legal guarantee for the MSP. Besides, he added, farmers will be compensated for their losses, in case of any damages, within 30 days.

He said the Congress believes in doing things and not making fake promises. He pointed out, it was Congress that brought the MGNREGA with a 100-day job guarantee, the Food Security Act, Right to Education, just to name only a few welfare schemes.