Cong trying to sidestep responsibility, says Modi

Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday took the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to task for the spiraling inflation and price rise and urged the people to throw the “arrogant Congress” out of power.

Addressing an election rally, his first in Udaipur, ahead of elections to the five Assemblies, Modi said the UPA, which promised to control price rise in 100 days after coming to power in 2009, is now falling back on “family serial” to cover up its failures.

He was referring to Rahul’s emotional speech in Churu, Rajasthan, in which the Congress scion talked about the assassination of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. “Perhaps influenced by TV and daily soaps, the “shahzada” (prince) has fallen back on family serial instead of talking of issues concerning the people,” he said.

He also ridiculed Rahul Gandhi’s claim that Pakistan intelligence agency was trying to lure Muzaffarnagar riot victims into terrorism saying, “I tried to find out the source of the ISI story, it was found that a police officer in Rajasthan seeking a party ticket weaved a story and we heard the prince’s parroting it in public rally,” Modi said.

Comparing the present prices of essential commodities with the prices during the NDA regime, he said the costliest thing today was onion. He said,  “Production of onion has gone down only 5 per cent,  but the price has gone up by 1,500 per cent. The reason being onions are grown in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka—all Congress-ruled states—which speaks volumes.”