“Congress has destroyed the country with its anti-people rule for 10 years,” Narendra Modi, Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial nominee, said here on Wednesday.
At a campaign rally for the party’s Bidar candidate Bhagwant Khuba, he said the Congress was singularly responsible for all the problems being faced by people now.
“Has any Congress leader given you answer for failing to provide jobs to the youth?” he asked the crowd. “Have you got answers for why your parents are not getting cheap medicines or why your children are not in good schools?”
He said the Congress manifesto contained “the same old promises made five years ago”. “Why should you vote for them (Congress leaders) if they cannot keep their promises? he asked.
He accused N. Dharam Singh, incumbent MP, of having failed in his duties as a member of Parliament. “What is more, he is uninterested. He has no time for Bidar. I came here as it is a function to send him off,” Mr. Modi said.
He accused Mr. Singh of failing to come to the rescue of Bidriware artisans. Bidriware artisans include both Hindus and Muslims. If only Mr. Singh had spent some time discussing with experts, he could have found ways to increase the demand for Bidriware and protect the interests of artisans, he said.
He targeted Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi all through his speech. He did not take the names of any Central or State BJP leader. He said the Congress was using the shield of secularism to hide its failures. “For them, secularism was a tool to divide people in the name of religion and continue vote-bank politics. But for us, secularism is a tool to unite people and lead them to development,” the BJP leader claimed.
He said the Lok Sabha election was a fight between a prince who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and an ordinary party worker who rose up the ranks by selling tea in trains.
“I know what it means to go to bed on an empty stomach. But the prince has to visit the houses of poor to find out what it means,” he said.
He accused Congress leaders of “looting” the country and stashing black money in Swiss banks. “I promise you that I will get each rupee of the loot...,” he said.
