On a day Congress held a rally to attack him, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today projected his government as pro-poor and pro-farmers and lashed out at "perverted" critics for their "congenital habit" of running down the BJP which he wanted his party to counter vigorously.
He dwelt at length about the measures taken for the "benefit" of the poor and the farmers and asked his party MPs to highlight this while making a contrast between his government and the previous ones on the similar lines as 'black and white' and 'colour' in the television world.
Modi refrained from speaking about the Land Acquisition Bill against which Congress organised the rally here but mentioned his government's initiatives aimed at benefitting the farmers, including the "bold" decision to pay compensation to those who suffered in the recent rains by bringing down the criteria of damage from 50 per cent to 33 per cent.
The only oblique reference he made to the controversial bill was when he attacked "perverted minds", including a section of media, for wrongly projecting his speech in Bengaluru during the party's National Council meeting earlier this month.
While talking about his efforts to curb corruption and leakage of public funds, he targeted former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, without naming him, for having said that 'out of Re one, only 15 paise reaches the people', and observed that "you do not have to only do analysis but treat the disease".
In his hour-long speech at a meeting of party MPs, Modi said, "All decisions I am taking are for the welfare of the poor... We are working for the poor, not for being in news but because we cannot sleep peacefully if we don't do it. We live for the poor. We are in public life not to enjoy the power but for the welfare of the poor."
Citing examples like drop in inflation and falling cement prices, he said these were the result of his government's schemes which had benefitted the poor.
"Some people have this 'janmjaat (congenital)' habit of running down BJP. They have a right to criticise us but then they have no right to call themselves neutral... I have always been speaking about the poor, working for them.
