Launching a scathing attack on the Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the opposition party was now being called a ‘bail gaadi’ as several of its leaders were out on bail.
“Several leaders who are called stalwarts of the Congress and former ministers are out on bail these days,” Modi said at a public rally, punning on the Hindi term for a bullock cart.
He said the people were well aware of the “intentions” of the Congress party and had started calling it a ‘bail gaadi’.
Making an apparent reference to the surgical strike into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 2016, he criticised the Congress for questioning the capabilities of the army.
“It is unfortunate that political opponents also committed a sin by raising questions on the capabilities of the army. This has never happened before and the people will not forgive those who are doing this kind of politics,” he said.
Modi was addressing a rally of beneficiaries of welfare schemes run by the Centre and the state government in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Rajasthan, where assembly elections will be held later this year.
The prime minister laid the foundation stones -- symbolically, through remote from the Amrudon ka Bagh rally venue -- for 13 projects worth Rs 2,100 crore in various districts of the state.
Criticising the Congress, he said the parties following the politics of family and dynasty may continue like that, but the BJP government was committed to taking the country’s defence and self-respect to their pinnacle.
“The country today is at a crucial stage. We have started moving towards a new direction and I believe that the government, with the cooperation of you all, will gain success in fulfilling its commitments,” he said.
Without taking names, the prime minister said some people get disturbed on hearing the name of the BJP.
They catch a fever when Modi or Vasundhara Raje are mentioned, he added.
“Such people hate this kind of programmes but the common people get to know about the government’s schemes and programmes through such events,” he said about the rally he was addressing.
“Information about the schemes and programmes reaches the masses and this creates awareness among the public, and also creates pressure on the government machinery,” he said.
He said the BJP government’s only agenda was development, unlike that of the previous Congress government whose leaders were bothered only about installing plaques with their names for projects.
He cited the example of the oil refinery in Barmer, suggesting that the Congress government did little on it while the project picked up only when the BJP came to power.
He said the poor, the underprivileged, farmers and women have been at the centre of the schemes which the government has introduced in the last four years.
He mentioned Jan Dhan Yojna, crop insurance scheme, housing schemes, Ujjawala Yojna, Mudra scheme and the soil health card.
He also talked about the recent hike in the minimum support price of farm produce.
Chief minister Vasundhara Raje also targeted the Congress in her address, saying the party had worked only for benefitting its own people.
Recorded statements of the beneficiaries were played out at the beginning of the public meeting.
Later, the same people met the prime minister on the dais. Groups of farmers also met him.
Governor Kalyan Singh and Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, P P Chaudhary and C R Chaudhary attended the event.
BJP state president Madan Lal Saini and other party leaders were also present.
