 "Rahul Gandhi, rahul, narendra modi, modi")
With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections a little over a month away, political discourse plummeted on Thursday with Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi trading charges and ridiculing each other.
Modi, at Varanasi, accused the Opposition of trying to “rescue the corrupt” by opposing demonetisation and stalling Parliament, just as Pakistan gives cover to terrorists for crossing the border. “I am happy that this drive (demonetisation), aimed at eliminating kala dhan, has exposed so many kale mann,” Modi said. He also likened the Opposition to a gang of pickpockets in a village fair.
The PM, on a first visit to his Lok Sabha constituency after the note ban decision, slammed former PM Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram for their statements against demonetisation. He also questioned Singh’s integrity. And, scorned Gandhi’s speeches and mimicked him, adding that he was delighted the Congress leader had “learnt” to speak. “Since the time he has learnt to speak, there is no limit to my happiness. In 2009, you couldn’t even tell what is inside this packet and what is not. Now, we are finding out,” Modi said, without naming Gandhi.
Gandhi hit back later in the day at a public rally in Bahraich, UP. “Mock me but answer the questions I have raised,” Gandhi said, quoting a popular couplet of Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. In a repartee to Modi’s reference to “packet”, Gandhi tweeted: “Modiji, first tell us what was in the nine packets from Sahara”, attaching document purportedly seized during raids on Sahara group properties by investigating agencies.
On Wednesday, at a public rally in Mehsana, Gandhi had demanded the PM come clean on allegations of receiving cash payments of Rs 40 crore from individuals associated with industrial houses Sahara India and the Aditya Birla Group.
He had said the note ban was to help the “super rich 50 families of India” and not the poor, adding Modi was a “super event planner” who had made “perfect planning” to take money from the poor to help the rich.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rubbished Gandhi’s claims. Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu termed them “baseless, shameful and malafide”, and an attempt to derail the government’s anti-corruption agenda.
In Gandhi’s support, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress issued a “Modi hatao, desh bachao" (remove Modi, save the country) slogan. Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief Sitaram Yechury tweeted that the language used by Modi against the Opposition “is best abandoned after becoming PM” and “serious allegations deserve impartial inquiry and a proper response”.
Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad demanded an inquiry and described the PM as ‘Uncle Podger’, a bumbling character from Jerome K Jerome’s ‘Three Men in a Boat’ for “messing up the economy” and “pushing it towards anarchy” with his note ban decision. His party has called for a protest against demonetisation across Bihar on December 28. With Parliament’s Budget session likely to coincide with the elections in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa in February-March, the no-holds-barred attacks are likely to cast a shadow on proceedings.
The name-calling, and with sources stating the Congress and Samajwadi Party were close to a seat adjustment for UP, makes for a scenario reminiscent of the run-up to the Bihar Assembly polls in November 2015. During Assembly polls campaign, BJP chief Amit Shah had said firecrackers would be burst in Pakistan if his party were to lose.
Sources said the Congress-SP alliance was nearly sealed and would be announced in the days to come. The Congress had initially demanded 100 of the 403 Assembly seats but is likely to settle for less and agree to a greater share for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
