Congress reacts in different voices

While party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said the speech was "inclusive," former Minister Manish Tewari attacked Modi for delivering a speech on "pedestrian issues."

August 15, 2014 08:15 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:43 pm IST - New Delhi

 

Congress spoke in different voices on the first Independence Day speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

While party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi tweeted describing the speech as ‘inclusive, harmonious, carrying all together, non-vendetta’, former Union Minister Manish Tewari attacked Modi for what he termed as delivering a speech on "pedestrian issues."

Though Dr. Singhvi did say that 60 days experience and many actions/ words of his govt/ party belie his words, Mr. Tewari contended that the speech had "no new ideas, new schemes, and new initiatives."

"Given that it was the first address of the new Prime Minister one would have expected certain vision to be articulated by him on the trajectory of the next five years”, Mr. Tewari noted.

Dr. Singhvi complimented the Prime Minister for striking the right notes on girl child, manufacturing sector, digital India and poverty. “All axioms 4 india: all where UPA made specific progs/ progress,” his tweet read.

In another tweet, Dr. Singhvi said, “adityanaths, balyans, bhagwats, goa minister, Bihar MP all do yeoman DISSERVICE to very inclusive, harmonious & positive sentiments of PM. I only wish PM's excellent sentiments--inclusion, harmony, carrying parties & MPs together, no using brute majority- r folld by BJP hotheads.

“No ques of criticising PM speech per se since normatively all he said is of national interest.. Question only about delivery by his govt. No one can/shd object to Pm's speech per se. Only challenge is to bridge hiatus between words & deeds. Maybe 60 days too short... V can wait”, he said.

Congress general secretary Shakeel Ahmed said that Mr. Modi delivered a `zero effect’ speech. "It had nothing new. No new ideas, schemes, initiatives were announced by the Prime Minister."

On the comments made by the Prime Minister over the issue of communalism, Mr. Ahmed said that Mr. Modi should remember that the politics of the BJP are "based on communalism."

"On ground level his party is instigating all riots and conflicts. The Prime Minister himself climbed the ladder through communal conflicts," he charged.

He was also not prepared to give any credit to the Prime Minister on the need for construction of toilets and promotion of sanitation.

Mr. Ahmed said, "Vidya Balan is already promoting sanitation ten times a day on TV channels and it is part of the propaganda drive of the Ministry of Sanitation set up by the UPA."

On the plan for opening bank accounts, the Congress leader said that under MGNREA, the UPA Government had ensured that even when there were no bank branches, they could open account in post offices. 

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