PM used poetry to cover up government's failures: Modi

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today fired a fresh salvo at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying his speech reminded him of proverb 'empty vessels make the most noise' and his poetry was a vain attempt to hide Centre's failures.

"I listened to the speech of Prime Minister day before yesterday and I remembered the saying 'empty vessels make the most noise'," Modi said addressing a function, where Congress leader Vitthal Radadia and his son joined the BJP.

Radadia had hit the headlines last year after he was caught on camera brandishing a gun at a toll-booth and was then condemned by the BJP.

While praising Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj for her reply, Modi said that the Prime Minister's speech had no road map for development and his reply in Rajya Sabha showed that "his attacking posture has died within just twenty-four hours".

"People would have expected that Prime Minister will speak about how he wants to take this country forward, what is the roadmap, what are the programmes, but nothing of this sort was there in the speech," Modi said.

"Instead he recited 'sher-o-shayri', to cover up failures. He felt he is under attack and if he did not speak up, media attention will not be gained. That is the reason he attacked through poetry," Modi said, adding that now the entire media had started speaking the poetical language.

"But he was not aware that BJP leader Sushma Swaraj will give such a beautiful reply to him by using the language of poetry," Modi said.

"The PM spoke in the Rajya Sabha today. His attacking posture had changed and no poetry was recited, knowing that he would get a befitting reply. His attacking posture has died within just twenty-four hours," Modi said.

"The union government has failed on all fronts and is pushing the nation towards a crisis. Youth of the country are seeing darkness all around," Modi said.

After Modi called the Congress "termites" and dubbed the Prime Minister as "night watchman" at BJP national council meet, the Prime Minister said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that BJP had hurled the "choicest abuses", but he would not use the same language in reply.

Modi today said that while the UPA government allocated Rs 1,000 crore for skill development of youth, Gujarat, "a small state", had allocated Rs 800 crore for the same purpose.

Gujarat was leading the country in the fight against malnutrition and unemployment was lowest in the state, he claimed.

Modi also said that solving the water problem of Saurashtra was a top priority of his government.