Bigwigs on the go, pick national issues coated with local flavour

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 14

It was political bigwigs’ day out in Haryana with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi today hitting the campaign trail and taking potshots at each other.

Both leaders tried to flag the issues pertaining to Haryana in a bid to woo the voters for the October 21 state Assembly elections.

Modi, who was in Ballabhgarh in Faridabad district, harped on Article 370, triple talaq talk, one rank one pension (OROP), transparent governance, corruption and Opposition parties’ dynastic politics.

Rahul, on the other hand, flayed BJP’s “diversionary tactics” which sought to take away the focus from pressing issues like the sorry state of economy, unemployment and farm distress.

In fact, Modi, who had been in charge of the BJP affairs for Haryana in the 1990s patted his confidant and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on the back for providing a “transparent and corruption-free” government over the last five years.

Modi claimed that Haryana’s notorious “kharchi and parchi” (bribe and recommendation) were now a thing of the past with meritorious candidates getting government jobs under Khattar’s transparent regime. He did not fail to mention that certain politicians (read former CM Om Prakash Chautala) were behind bars for indulging in corruption in the recruitment for government jobs.

However, Rahul hit back at the Khattar government, asserting that the slowdown in the Indian economy had hit the youth hard with unemployment highest in Haryana even as the BJP government had preferred to look the other way. “Modiji and Khattarji both make false promises again and again. They are taking money away from poor people and filling the coffers of their rich friends,” Rahul alleged.

Giving the BJP’s nationalist narrative on abrogation of Article 370 a local perspective, Modi said: “The Congress should explain to the mothers who have lost their sons and to our daughters who have lost their husbands in Jammu and Kashmir trying to protect the integrity of the country.”

With every 10th soldier from Haryana, Modi was quick claim credit for the implementation of the OROP, saying that over 2 lakh ex-servicemen from Haryana had benefited to the tune of hundreds of crores of rupees.

Modi vs Rahul

“Haryana’s notorious “kharchi and parchi” (bribe and recommendation) were now a thing of the past with meritorious candidates getting government jobs under Khattar’s transparent regime.”

--Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

“Modiji and Khattarji both make false promises again and again. They are taking money away from poor people and filling the coffers of their rich friends.”

--Rahul Gandhi, ex-Congress chief