For the second time in two days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government eliminated terrorists by entering their home turf, in stark contrast to the previous Congress-led UPA regime, which had merely compiled and sent dossiers on the terror attacks to neighbouring Pakistan.
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Addressing a poll rally in Latur district in the Marathwada region, Mr. Modi mocked the alleged ineffectiveness of previous Congress-led governments. “During the Congress regime, news headlines used to be about India handing over another dossier to Pakistan about terror activities and terrorists. It used to be big news. Some of our friends in the media used to clap after any such dossier was sent,” he remarked, commenting on the situation post the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.
Claiming that it was his government that had made the country safe and secure, the PM said: “Today, India does not dispatch dossiers, but we eliminate terrorists on their home turf. The headlines in the ‘NewBharat’ read: ‘Mission LOC, India punishes Pakistan through surgical strikes.’”
Inheritance tax
Mr. Modi was campaigning for NDA candidates for the Latur, Dharashiv (formerly Osmanabad), and Madha (in Solapur) Lok Sabha seats, which go to the polls on May 7 in the third phase.
The PM resurrected the bogey of the opposition Congress’ alleged plan to introduce an inheritance tax if it comes to power. “By this tax, if one is leaving behind 10 acres of land after their death, then their legal heirs will get only five acres each, and the remaining will go to the Congress. This party has given power and privilege to its own first family [alluding to the Nehru-Gandhi family] and its new generation through inheritance,” he said.
Watery promises
Addressing a public rally at Malshiras in Madha, the PM launched a broadside against Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar, saying that the time had come “to punish him” for not keeping his promise made in 2009 to bring water to Solapur district, which faces acute scarcity. Mr. Pawar had contested and won the Madha seat in 2009.
“A tall leader from Maharashtra, whom you all know, had pledged to bring water to Solapur back in 2009 when he fought the Lok Sabha election from Madha. Was he able to give you the water? It is time to teach him a lesson. His tenure as MP was so abysmal that he did not dare to contest from the Madha constituency after that. There were 99 incomplete irrigation projects in the country, 26 from Maharashtra. It is my mission to deliver on my promise of giving water to every field and household. We have completed 63 of these projects,” Mr. Modi said.
He added that even as a former Union Agriculture Minister, Mr. Pawar had not done anything for the drought-prone areas of the State, like Solapur, or for farmers across the country.
