Stop lecturing, Priyanka tells Modi

Priyanka Gandhi today tore into the Gujarat model of development in which "thousands of acres" of land has been given to "friends" of Chief Minister Narendra Modi at "throwaway prices" and accused him of treating the country as a "classroom".

Campaigning for her mother Congress President Sonia Gandhi here, she also took a dig at him for his 'ABCD' and 'RSVP' jibes and said he should instead tell people what he planned to do for them.

Priyanka said that people possess an unmatched understanding and they knew about Modi's Gujarat model of development "where you (Modi) gave thousands of acres of land to your friends."

Modi should tell people what is the situation of farmers and workers under his model or what had he done for women, she said.

Addressing the people, she said that they must have seen the huge campaigns on TV.

"Kabhi ABCD, kabhi RSVP. Aur kabhi da se desh aur ka se kouva. Ba se band bhi to kariye. (Sometimes ABCD, sometimes RSVP. Other time d for desh (country) and c for crow. Now please stop it).

"You are not addressing a primary school but people of the country," she said, apparently referring to the jibes that Modi had directed at the UPA and Gandhi family in the past.

Modi had recently described UPA's governance as "RSVP model" in which a person was able to multiply his earnings from Rs one lakh to Rs 400 crore in five years.

Giving his own meaning to RSVP, he said it stood for "Rahul, Sonia, Vadra and Priyanka".

He had also attacked Congress saying 'ABCD' has become a symbol of corruption by Congress party with 'A' referring to Aadarsh scam and 'B' denoting Bofors.

Priyanka said any leader whether from her own party or from any other should speak about what they would do for the people.

She said Congress ideology had always respected the country's unity and tradition of generosity. 

Priyanka also made a veiled attack on Modi's close aide Amit Shah.

"The public understands your clean politics, an example of which yesterday stood by your side waving to people," she said, apparently referring to Shah's presence alongside Modi when he went to file his nomination papers in Varanasi yesterday.

She also said that the understanding of the people surpassed the egos ('ahankaar') of leaders.

Attacking Modi, Priyanka said he had inclination to keep all the power in his hands.

"A different type of campaigning is going on these days. It says give me all the power, we are answers to all the questions. We do not believe in this," Gandhi said, in a direct reference to Modi, at a rally here.

She said that the Congress party believed in giving power to the people while highlighting the flagship programmes of the UPA government.

"The Congress party believes in giving strength to people. With MNREGA, we gave the right to work, Right to Education... now no one can deny you basic education, Food Security Bill. We brought RTI and no one can deny you any information. Now we want to bring in Right to Housing so that no one is without shelter," she said.

In an attempt to strike an emotional chord with the voters Gandhi, who is handling the campaigning in the constituencies of her mother Sonia and her brother Rahul said, "We know who has allowed us to stand here (as an MP) and it is all because of you,"