)
The Congress on Friday resumed its attack on the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government, with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accusing it of giving "thousands of acres" to Modi's "friends" at "throwaway prices". Following this, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raked up the issue of alleged illegal land deals of Robert Vadra, Priyanka Vadra's husband.
For three consecutive days, Priyanka Vadra has been attacking Modi, making the BJP react to her charges.
Speaking in Rae Bareli on Friday, she said people understood and knew about Modi's Gujarat model of development "where you (Modi) gave thousands of acres of land to your friends". She asked Modi to tell people what he had done for women, peasants and workers.
"Kabhi ABCD, kabhi RSVP, aur kabhi 'd' se desh aur 'k' se kauwwa. 'B' se band bhi to kariye (sometimes ABCD, sometimes RSVP, other times 'N' for nation and 'C' for crow. How about 'S' for stop saying such things)," Priyanka said. Modi should know he wasn't "addressing a primary school class, but the people of the country", she said, adding people had discerned the BJP leadership's hubris.
Instead of mouthing inanities, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate should tell the people what he planned to do for them, she said.
Recently, Modi had termed the United Progressive Alliance's governance model as "RSVP (Rahul, Sonia, Vadra and Priyanka)" model, one in which an investment of Rs 1 lakh fetched returns of Rs 300 crore in five years for Robert Vadra. "ABCD", Modi said, was the Congress's report card on corruption - A for the Adarsh scam, 'B' for Bofors, 'C' for Commonwealth Games, etc.
Priyanka's attack on Modi saw a three-pronged response from the BJP - to attack Robert Vadra's allegedly illegal land deals, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman and Prakash Javadekar held separate press conferences in Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Delhi, respectively.
The three said the fact that the Congress was fielding Priyanka Vadra was a clear sign it believed Rahul had failed. Javadekar said the Gujarat model had brought investments and encouraged industrial development, resulting in the state's gross domestic product growth being the highest in the country in the last 10-years. He asked Priyanka to name any Congress-ruled state that had 24x7 power supply.
