Modi can even dance for votes: Rahul

Former Congress president and Lok Sabha Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging that he would even dance on the stage for votes.

Kicking off his Bihar poll campaign with back-to-back joint rallies alongside INDIA bloc’s CM face Tejashwi Yadav in Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga, Rahul took a dig at the PM over Chhath Puja. “You must have seen the drama on TV that Modi was going to take a dip in the Yamuna for Chhath Puja. It was shelved when it was exposed that a puddle had been formed with clean, piped water since the river is so filthy… There were two different things—clean water for the PM and the river’s dirty water for ordinary devotees,” he said.

Rahul, who was seen with Tejashwi in Bihar for the first time in almost two months after the “Voter Adhikar Yatra”, alleged that the PM had nothing to do with Chhath and the “drama was enacted by him only for votes”.

Taking strong exception, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is the BJP’s in-charge for the Bihar elections, said Rahul’s remarks were against basic norms of civility in public discourse. “He has insulted the PM, and in effect, heaped scorn on Chhath Puja,” Pradhan said.

In Darbhanga, Rahul reasserted that US President Donald Trump had repeatedly said “he ordered Modi to stop Operation Sindoor”. “PM Modi does not have the courage to declare Trump is lying. He is being insulted everyday by Trump. I want the PM to say ‘Trump is lying’ when he comes to Bihar the next time,” he said, recalling the 1971 India-Pakistan war in which his grandmother and then PM Indira Gandhi had “blatantly told then US President Richard Nixon that she did not fear him”.

Rahul took a dig at both Modi and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. “They must explain why farmers’ land in Bihar is being given to Adani for just Re 1,” he said.

He also questioned PM Modi’s recent speech in Samastipur saying the Centre “provided cheap mobile data with which the youth were able to launch start-ups”. “The cheap data was not provided for the Bihar youth, but to ensure profits to Ambani in the form of spectrum allocation. The entrepreneurship of Bihar’s youth was killed by demonetisaiton and GST,” he said.

Rahul accused the BJP of remote-controlling Nitish. “He cannot take decisions on his own. Nitish has been at the helm for 20 years, but he has done nothing for Bihar,” he said.

Claiming that votes were stolen in Haryana and Maharashtra, the Congress leader urged Bihar people to be vigilant on the voting day and ensure their “votes were not stolen”.

Tejashwi said once the INDIA bloc came to power, the government would be committed to fulfilling all pre-poll promises.