A day after his predecessor Manmohan Singh’s jibe that perpetrators of banking frauds have escaped to foreign countries with impunity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday declared that those who had looted the country and gone abroad would be brought back.
At a public meeting here as part of the BJP’s election campaign, Mr. Modi asserted that those who had gone abroad after looting in India would have to return. “I promise you that we will see to it that they return,” he said, in an obvious reference to liquor baron Vijay Mallya, diamond merchant Nirav Modi, and the former cricket administrator Lalit Modi.
Launching a counter-attack on Dr. Singh, he ridiculed him for running a government that was “remote-controlled” by the then AICC president Sonia Gandhi. “When the economist was the Prime Minister, the world was concerned about Indian economy’s fragile condition as they feared that it may sink them too,” he remarked, and claimed that in the last four years, the country had not only improved its financial condition, but also made a significant contribution to improving the world’s economic condition.
Now, India had become a most sought after destination for investors, and prestigious world economic forums were referring to India with respect, he said.
He said during the Congress regime, some firms held thousands of bank accounts and there was a trend of 200 to 300 companies operating from one common single room. He had not only closed four lakh such fake companies, but also barred three lakh directors of such firms from taking over the charge again, he said, and added that this was why some people had started “oust Modi” campaign.
Attacking the Siddaramaiah government that had tried to invoke Kannada sentiments, Mr. Modi alleged that the Congress election manifesto was full of so many grammatical errors in every sentence and page that it had actually amounted to insulting Kannada language.
‘Bengaluru in stranglehold of a troika’
Mr. Modi attacked Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for “derailing” the administration of Bengaluru.
“I don’t know why Siddaramaiah is so angry with Bengaluru. The city is today in the stranglehold of a troika,” he said.
Without naming anyone but leaving no room for doubt, he said the troika was “a Minister who is a prime accused in the murder of a police officer, a Minister who has made his name ‘roshan’ in land grabbing and is behind a conspiracy to bring Gulf money and invest in the city, and the third an MLA who has ensured there is no ‘shanti’ in his constituency, whose son is on an attacking spree on common people,” he said.
He was clearly alluding to K.J. George, R. Roshan Baig, and N.A. Haris.
Young woman from Mandya meets PM
The rally in the city on Tuesday was witness to a meeting between a young woman from Mandya and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sara, daughter of a former employee of Mysugar factory in Mandya, had completed B.Com. with 88% marks but could not continue her education as a bank had rejected her application for an education loan and this had prompted her to write to the Prime Minister. The PMO directed the bank to grant her the loan, which she availed and completed her MBA recently and got placed in a leading MNC IT firm.
