Sticking to his charge that the Prime Minister continued his photo shoot after the Pulwama terror strike, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Friday said Narendra Modi should be "ashamed of himself" for not calling it off.
Three and a half hours, my friends, three and a half hours he made a movie of himself. Making a movie, smiling and laughing were more important to him than helping the families of those who died," he alleged at a public meeting in this temple town.
The charge first made by Gandhi in a tweet Thursday was vehemently denied by the BJP which called it a lie and slammed the Congress for indulging in "petty politics".
Gandhi also accused Modi of waiving Rs 3.5 lakh crore loans of powerful businessmen while not writing off the debts of poor farmers.
Sounding the poll bugle in the state, he said the Congress would accord special category status to Andhra Pradesh if it was voted to power in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
Referring to the Pulwama blast, he said: When 40 of our CRPF jawans are martyred, when their blood is still flowing, the PM of India who calls himself a nationalist, is sitting in a national park, getting a movie made of himself."
Continuing his tirade, Gandhi said: "...They dont have enough feeling, enough respect that 40 of our boysmay be I should stop doing this and may be I should try to help them. The PM should be ashamed of his behaviour after our boys were killed."
Addressing the meeting as part of the partys "Pratyeka Hoda Bharosa Yatra", he sought to reassure people of Andhra that the special category status would be granted to the state once the Congress comes to power at the Centre.
This is our commitment. It is my commitment, commitment of the Congress, commitment of government of India that you will be given SCS.
"Modi should be ashamed of not giving people of AP what they deserve, he said, recalling the BJPs promise of granting SCS to the state for 10 years.
When the Congress comes to power in Delhi, no force in this world will stop it from giving SCS to AP. It doesnt matter to me whether or not there is a Congress government in AP. The commitment of the PM will be fulfilled, no matter what, he asserted.
Stating that the promise was given in 2014 by a person who was now the prime minister, the Congress chief said it was not only his party that would be fulfilling it but the entire nation.
Ruling TDP in the state had walked out of the BJP-led NDA and withdrew support to the Modi government last year over the issue of the special category status.
On the farm loan waiver, he said Congress implemented its promise in this regard in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgargh within days of coming to power.
"We showed from where the money came from" by implementing the loan waiver on which the BJP MPs had expressed scepticism, the Congress chief said.
"Modi can forgive Rs 3.5 lakh crore and give loan waivers to the most powerful businessmen in the country but cannot forgive the farmers' loans," he charged.
Referring to the alleged scam in the Rafael deal, Gandhi reiterated his charge that Modi gave Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani of Reliance and overlooked public sector HAL.
The charge has been rejected by the government and Ambani.
AICC general secretary Oommen Chandy, MPs T Subbarami Reddy, K V P Ramachandra Rao, state Congress president N Raghuveera Reddy, former Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and other leaders attended.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi offered prayers at the famous Lord Venkateswara temple at nearby Tirumala after quickly trekking the nearly 10 km-long stairway leading to the ancient shrine.
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