‘Amethi showed you magic’, counters Smriti Irani after Rahul says Adani’s fortunes rose ‘by magic’

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 7

Hours after Rahul Gandhi, in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Gautam Adani’s fortunes rose “by magic”, the BJP fielded women and child development minister Smriti Irani to lead a counter offensive against the Gandhis.

“Amethi showed you magic when Congress forfeited deposit in four of five assembly segments,” Irani said, accusing a Gandhi family linked Foundation of occupying 40 acre of prime government land on a monthly rent of Rs 623 and building a guest house on that land after promising to build a medical college for Amethi.

“Yes, magic happened in Amethi,” Irani said.

Taking digs at Rahul, whom she defeated in 2019 Lok Sabha election from the segment, Irani asked the Congress leader why Amethi, a constituency which Gandhi family members represented for 50 years, got a bus stand only when BJP came to power in UP; why over 4 lakh people of the segment got houses only under PM’s Aawas Yojna; why five villages of Amethi never got road connectivity until BJP came to power.

“These people who were levelling allegations against Pradhan Sewak (Modi) today and who ruled Amethi for 50 years returned an ailing Nanhe Lal Mishra from their hospital only because he had PM’s Ayushman Bharat card. The man died from want of treatment,” said Irani.

She said the “family (read Gandhi family) usurped land meant for Samrat Cycle factory and refuses to vacate it despite a court order to this effect”.

The minister said Congress “has always betrayed minorities and used to charge money for Haj applications, a practice PM Modi ended”.

“While the PM is building infrastructure in the name of Sardar Patel and Netaji Bose, why has this family (Gandhis) built a hostel in Amethi in the name of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi? And they talk of the poor?”

She said “all Hindi proverbs, including ulta chor kotwal ko daante, had come true in Lok Sabha today.”

She was referring to Rahul Gandhi’s anti-Adani and anti-PM tirade.