Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Congress said his election speeches in Gujarat were aimed at misleading the voters. The Opposition was irked by Modi’s statement that the Congress did not do anything for Gujarat during its 60-year-old rule at the Centre.
Anand Sharma, the Congress’ deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, said the establishment of an IIM at Ahmedabad was vital to the formation of the Amul cooperative movement. Sharma said Modi’s accusations against the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru reflected his “unhealthy mindset”.
“The Prime Minister has said that the country’s first PM has not done anything for Gujarat. It is wrong and far from truth. We condemn it,” Sharma said.
The Congress leader said the Congress’s prime ministers were not always from the Nehru-Gandhi family. He said that since 1989, though the Congress was in power for more than 15 years, none from the Nehru family were part of the government.
Sharma added that the BJP is disturbed over the increasing support for the Congress in the State. “It is not right on the part of the Prime Minister to speak like this. He should abstain from such statements as the Congress is capable of denying them with facts. The Prime Minister is trying to mislead the people of Gujarat by giving wrong statements and is trying to lure the people of the state ahead of assembly elections,” he added.
‘Modi faces a credibility crisis’
Sharma said Modi’s statement would give a message to the voters in Gujarat that the Prime Minister of India is a person who makes irresponsible and wrong statements. He added that Modi should have thought of his own government, which is facing a “credibility crisis”. “The Modi government is running away from accountability and that is why the Prime Minister never convened a Parliament session ahead of Gujarat Assembly polls and neither did he answer any of our questions,” Sharma said. “The Congress has never told the BJP whom it should elect as its chief. The Prime Minister should stop worrying about the Congress and focus on his party instead,” he said.