Modi attacks Cong, Patnaik in Odisha rally

Narendra Modi, the BJP’s nominee to be prime minister, called leaders of the Congress habitual liars at a rally in western Odisha on Friday and asked the electorate to punish them by voting them out of government.

The Gujarat chief minister appealed to voters to not get carried away by the ruling party’s promises. He asked them to vote for a stable government at the Centre.
“The Congress leaders are habitual liars. They have acquired expertise in telling blatant lies. They come out with new lies during every election,”said Modi.

“I would like to appeal to the people in all parts of the country not to get influenced by their lies and punish them heavily during the coming polls. Those who destroyed the nation should not be spared,” he said, at an election rally in the western Odisha town of Sambalpur.

To back himself up, he picked the Congress’ promise on the eve of the 2009 elections, where the party said they would bring down inflation within 100 days of being elected into government.

“After coming back to power the Congress led UPA government failed to keep its promise. Instead of coming down, the rate of inflation went up further”, he said.

In this context, Modi also launched an attack on the UPA government on the issue of food security. “It took 60 long years for the Congress to realize about the food security of the poor people and bring a legislation in this regard,” he said, adding that successive Congress governments had not done much for tribals’ development.

Odisha’s chief minister and Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik was also not spared of Modi’s criticism. The Gujarat CM charged him of not sparing enough time for the people of Odisha. “I do not want to waste my time to speak about a leader who does not have enough time for his own people,” he quipped. The BJD and BJP were formerly alliance partners in the NDA government after the 1999 polls.

During his hour long speech, Modi also came down heavily on external affairs minister Salman Khurshid for the latter’s criticism of the Election Commission during his trip to London. On Thursday news reports cited Khurshid criticising the EC and the Supreme Court.