Modi, Sonia spar at poll rallies

PTI KARNAL/BEED, OCTOBER 4 Kick-starting BJP’s election campaign in Congress-ruled Haryana and Maharashtra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday attacked Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, saying those seeking audit of his performance of four months in power, have done little in the last 60 years. Modi, who addressed a series of rallies in Haryana and Maharashtra which are going for assembly polls on October 15, urged the people to dump the Congress and give a clear majority to BJP, promising them a strong and stable government. Training his guns on Gandhi, Modi said, “Those who ruled for 60 years are demanding the account of what my government did in 60 days. Petrol and diesel prices are down. I promise you I will pull the country out of the current mess in 60 months. The Prime Minister was hitting back at Gandhi who, while address an election rally in Meham in Haryana, accused him of trying to “show off” as if everything has been done only after his government came to power and asked what happened to his promise of bringing back black money stashed abroad. “They are creating such an atmosphere as if nothing has happened in the country since Independence and they will change everyone’s fortunes overnight. Have any steps been taken by the BJP to fulfil the promises made during the Lok Sabha elections,” she asked. “Has inflation come down? Is the poor man getting food at cheaper rate? Have the unemployed got jobs?” she asked. In a swipe at Modi, she said, “... empty vessels make the most noise. Being loud doesn’t mean you are speaking truth.” Targeting Congress which had described his recent US visit as “over hyped and disappointing”, Modi asked, “Was India’s presence ever felt in the US like this?” “It is not because of Modi but because of 1.25 crore countrymen. No country can afford to ignore a man behind whom 1.25 crore people stand. Today, the ruler and the society stand together,” he said. Addressing rallies in Beed and Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Modi attacked the erstwhile Congress-NCP combine in the state over corruption, accusing it of “destroying a whole generation”. “It was a union where as the clock ticked, the hand polished off everything. Now nothing has been left. Every young person in Maharashtra is under a huge burden of debt because of corruption,” he said, while referring to the election symbols of NCP and Congress which ended their 15-year-old alliance just before the elections. “Nobody benefited from the Congress-NCP government. Farmers, dalits, youth, adivasis, women, villages, towns ... none benefited ... a whole generation was destroyed,” Modi said at Beed, the parliamentary constituency of former Union minister Gopinath Munde, who died in a car crash earlier this year.