In a frontal attack on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, on Sunday ridiculed Mr. Gandhi for his “gaffes” and suggested he could soon force a popular stand-up comedian to shut shop.
While dismissing the Congress leader’s allegations against him and the Gujarat government, Mr. Modi said Mr. Gandhi’s speeches only had entertainment value.
“I heard Rahulji’s speech this morning and could not resist laughing. He said there is no Lokayukta in Gujarat and the day it is constituted Mr. Modi will go to jail. Let me tell you. There is a Lokayukta in Gujarat and the same Lokayukta in its report has indicted a former Chief Minister of Gujarat, Amarsinh Chaudhary, who belonged to the Congress,” Mr. Modi said at a rally in Jhansi.
“Since the former Chief Minister is no longer alive, we did not take his name. We know how to give respect,” he added.
Continuing his jibes at Mr. Gandhi, Mr. Modi said, “I think your mother’s [Sonia Gandhi] advisor, with whom you do not get along well, is writing your speeches. Forget about the country, is this how you run the Congress? Have you seen the Kapil Sharma comedy show on TV? Soon people will forget that and tune in to watch the Congress shehzada ’s [prince] speeches for entertainment.”
Taking a dig at Mr. Gandhi for alleged “false speeches,” Mr. Modi said: “Rahul baba said that there are 27,000 crore posts vacant in Gujarat. But he doesn’t know that Gujarat’s population is only 6 crore! His speeches are so ridiculous that one could even find clips of his speech on YouTube. People will laugh when they hear that.”
Attacking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for saying there was no ‘Modi wave’, the prime ministerial hopeful said Mr. Singh could not spot corruption and price rise in the country as he could only see only the mother-son duo.
Addressing a rally in Mahoba, Mr. Modi continued to train guns on the Congress leadership and said the party could not properly implement MNREGA, their flagship employment scheme, even in Amethi and Rae Bareli. “How can the party ensure that the scheme is implementation across the country,” he asked.
Attacking the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh over the law-and-order situation, the Gujarat Chief Minister said there were more arms licenses in the State than the number of families.
