Prasad slams Rahul over Cong's 'Jan Akrosh' rally

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad came down heavily on Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday and described his party's "Jan Akrosh" rally in the national capital as one held in the "quest of power".

Taking strong exception to Gandhi's criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the rally, the senior BJP leader said the Congress president was trying to galvanise his cadre that was "sceptical of his leadership, having faced loss after loss ever since he has taken over the reins of his party".

"Rahul Gandhi's rally in Delhi has been organised in the quest for power, though he has given it the name of 'Jan Akrosh' (people"s resentment).

"He has claimed that his party will win the Assembly polls in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, as well as the Lok Sabha, polls next year. He is daydreaming," Prasad told reporters here.

He said Gandhi was trying to instil a bit of enthusiasm into his "demoralised" party cadre.

"We have no problems with Gandhi's daydreaming and whatever gimmicks he resorts to in order to hide his shortcomings. But the language he has used against the prime minister is deplorable.

"He has shown scant respect for Narendra Modi, who is acknowledged as a global leader and whose four-year rule has been marked by a rapid economic progress, without any corruption scandal, unlike when the Congress ruled the country," Prasad said.

The Congress president, he added, had raised questions on the prime minister's recent visit to China, which was being seen as a huge success across the world.

Saying that Gandhi had also accused Modi of not raising the Doklam issue during the trip, Prasad asked, "Has he (Gandhi) told the nation, why did he meet the Chinese ambassador during the (Doklam) stand-off?"

Hitting back at the Congress president for saying that women were not safe under the Modi government, the Union minister said the current regime had made its priorities clear with campaigns like "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao".

The Congress, on the other hand, valued vote-bank politics over everything else and was yet to make its stand clear on triple talaq, he alleged.

"Seventy years have passed since Independence. For the 58 years, the country was ruled by the Congress, which has mostly been controlled by Rahul Gandhi's family. Their legacy is corruption, unemployment, farmers' suicides," Prasad said while adding that the Congress president owed an answer to the country on these counts.