Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress and the Gandhi family Saturday, saying the opposition party was dragging his mother into the political slugfest as it did not have any real issue and could not fight him.
Addressing rallies in Madhya Pradesh, where Assembly polls will be held on November 28, Modi said farmers in the country would have been better off if Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was the first prime minister.
He also attacked former prime minister Indira Gandhi over the "false promise" of "Garibi Hatao" (remove poverty) and the "fraud" of bank nationalisation, while targeting UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for running the government through a "remote control".
Speaking at Chhattarpur, Modi said the Congress was "abusing" his nonagenarian mother as it was bereft of issues.
Congress leader Raj Babbar had compared the falling value of Indian rupee with the advanced age of Modi's mother Hiraben during poll campaigning.
"Those in the Congress, you do not have the strength to fight Modi. In the last 17-18 years, I have challenged you at every instance and defeated you. And you are dragging my mother into politics? Does this behove the Congress and its leaders?," the prime minister asked.
"When you do not have issues, when there is a bankruptcy of issues and arrogance is sky-high, only then one dares to abuse someone else's mother," he said.
Saying he was speaking in "pain", Modi added, "After all, their weapons to target Modi have failed...they are now hurling abuses at Modi's mother, who does not understand even R of 'rajniti' (politics)."
Attacking the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime, he said, "Madam's (Sonia Gandhi) government had opened the doors of the banks for big industrialists, but we opened the banks for the people and sanctioned loans to 14.50 crore under the Mudra Yojna."
Between 2006 and 2014, the UPA government had showered largesse on the rich, "emptied the coffers" and "sunk the banks", the prime minister alleged.
He also referred to Italian businessmen Ottavio Quattrocchi, who had come under the scanner of investigative agencies in the Bofors deal.
"Why does the Congress not remember Quattrocchi, for whom its governments had kept the doors open...," Modi asked.
Warren Anderson, the CEO of Union Carbide, "was taken to America in a special plane" (and allowed to escape) under the watch of the Rajiv Gandhi government after the 1984 Bhopal gas leak tragedy, he alleged.
Accusing the Congress of indulging in "caste-based and discriminatory politics", Modi said Madhya Pradesh had taken a "big leap" under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since 2003.
Speaking at Mandsaur, which had witnessed an intense agitation by farmers for better prices for their produce last year, the prime minister said, "Generations of farmers have suffered due to the sins and wrong policies of the Congress."
"The farmers in India would not have been ruined under the Congress's 55-year rule, had Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel been the country's first prime minister," he added.
Saying that his government needed some time to correct "the mistakes of five-six decades", the prime minister added that given "half the time they (Congress) had, I will bring about a drastic change".
Modi also targeted the late Indira Gandhi.
"The grandmother of 'namdaar' (Rahul Gandhi), Shrimati Indira Gandhi, was the prime minister of the country. Didn't she give the slogan to remove poverty ("Garibi Hatao") 40 years ago?...Has poverty been eradicated? Wasn't this a false promise? Were those who made the promise not liars?," he asked the crowd.
Modi also said the move to nationalise banks did not benefit the poor as was claimed by the Indira Gandhi regime, and that it was a fraud.
The prime minister also referred to a video clip purportedly showing Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath asking Muslim leaders to ensure higher voting in Muslim areas.
The Congress leader seeking votes only from a "particular community" was an insult to democracy, he said.
Labelling the previous Manmohan Singh government as "a remote-controlled government of Madam (Sonia Gandhi)", Modi said it gave loans to farmers at an interest rate of 15-16 per cent, whereas the BJP governments were giving interest-free loans to them.
His government was committed to empowering farmers, the prime minister said and reiterated that it would double their income by 2022.
The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly will go to the polls on November 28 and the results will be announced on December 11.
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