'Make in India' means 'cooking stories' against Opp: Cong

Congress today hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming that 'Make in India' for him meant "cooking stories" against opposition and levelling "baseless" allegations against the party to divert people's attention from "his embarrassing economic failures".

"From National Herald to AgustaWestland and Ishrat Jahan fake encounter, the BJP has proven itself capable of making baseless accusations, but incapable of substantiating any of their claims," the party said.

In a strongly worded commentary posted on its website, the AICC said "if indeed there is any proof of wrongdoing, then is the Modi Government so impotent that they cannot prosecute the guilty" and added that "there is a difference between a strong PM who lets his work do the talking, and a PM so busy talking that he forgets his work".

The attack came as Congress and BJP were engaged in a political slugfest over charges that Robert Vadra may have bought a benami property in London with his mother-in-law and Congress President Sonia Gandhi claiming that everyday false allegations were made as part of a conspiracy of Modi government to make the country "Congress-free".

Vadra's legal firm has denied the allegations against him. Congress alleged that the government wanted to blunt all opposition against its "destruction of civil liberties, attack on students, anti-farmer, anti-Dalit and poor economic policy", which is taking India towards "uncertain and dark times".

It said in the case of AgustaWestland, it was "found" that operational changes were made during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's tenure as PM.

"Even Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had to beat a hasty retreat on this issue and said 'there is no evidence against Congress'," the party claimed in the commentary titled "For PM Modi, 'Make in India' means cooking stories against Opposition "

Posing the question whether any allegation of the Modi Government had proved to be true, it said, "Take the National Herald case or the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter or the AgustaWestland - after creating a hullabaloo, the Government quietly changed its stand in all cases".

Congress asked that if there was even an iota of truth in the Government's charges, would they not have gone hammer and tongs against Congress leaders.

"They haven't, because the allegations are all baseless. They are being made, and will be made by PM Modi in near future too, only with the intention of diverting people's attention from his embarrassing economic failures."

May 2014 gave a great opportunity to Modi to take India to greater heights, it said, insisting that he has "frittered away" the chance completely by choosing "hyper publicity over dedicated work and by attempting to silence all Opposition voices by cooking up false charges against them. "

It claimed Modi's strategy is simple - create negative hype around Congress party by "planting concocted" stories in media and creating positive hype around Government work that "never took place."

"The BJP has been leading this attack by deploying their dirty tricks department to concoct half baked insinuations and selective leaks to media, to attack Congress President Sonia Gandhi," the commentary said.

"Their latest was on the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, where no less than Union Ministers made public statements hinting at the 'complicity' of Smt. Gandhi in 'falsely targeting' the then CM of Gujarat, Narendra Modi," it said.

"They launched a slanderous campaign against senior Congress leadership, without realising that two courts found the encounter, which killed Ishrat Jahan to be 'Fake'.

"A magisterial inquiry reported that Ishrat was innocent and was killed only because she was a Muslim and fitted the Gujarat police's idea of a terrorist," the party said.

Now, even the Home Ministry, in response to an RTI, has said that "there was no proof that Gandhi interfered with the Ministry of Home Affairs", the party said.

"BJP is a party that's ever busy crafting new allegations, which they keep alive for a few weeks, before moving on," it alleged.