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With the Narendra Modi government celebrating its first year in office with much fanfare, the Congress on Tuesday questioned why the government had to go in for a media blitzkrieg as well as holding 200 rallies and 5,000 public meetings if it had genuine achievements to claim credit for.
“Work speaks for itself and the Modi government has little to speak of, hence the boastful claims and the event management,” said Congress Communication in-charge Randeep Surjewala. Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, addressing a rally at Kozhikode, said, “I wish to officially wish the ‘suit boot ki sarkar’ a happy birthday.” The Congress released a video depicting the “failures” of the Modi government and a booklet titled “Ek saal, desh badhaal” (One year, country in distress). It is a government of “self, selfies and selfish”, the party said.
Senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad pointed out that the “atmosphere of communal disharmony that had been ushered in with the advent of the Modi government harked the country back to that during the Partition era.” Azad asserted that all the loud claims of the government were “lies” and it was epitomised in the persona of the PM himself. “The Modi government has converted ‘Make-in-India’ into ‘Make- in-France’ by this unilateral Rafale deal,” he said. Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge listed out instances when the government had resorted to “lies”.
In his speech, Rahul Gandhi said, “Modiji had promised in his poll speeches that the minimum support price for foodgrain will be increased. No such increase took place. All that has been done away with. Unfortunately, birthday celebrations is only for a few powerful friends of the government. Farmers and workers have nothing to celebrate.”
