Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday that the Opposition was desperate without power.

Addressing a meeting of booth-level workers of the BJP, Shakthi Kendra Pramukhs, here on Wednesday, she said, “I don’t even want to utter the word (chor) that Gandhi used against the PM. Is this how the Opposition treats the nation’s PM? So, was it a drama, when Gandhi hugged the PM on the floor of the House? Besides, one can recall how Gandhi winked at his friends, after hugging the PM. Nowadays, winking is deemed to be bad manners,” she said.

“The decade-long UPA rule was full of scams. But, did the BJP leaders abuse then prime minister Manmohan Singh like this? There is not a single scam since Modi became prime minister. Despite clarifications by the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Supreme Court, the Congress is still harping on Rafael. They are so corrupt that they can’t believe that any defence deal can happen without a middleman,” she said.

She said the last five years have been historical in Independent India as they have witnessed the intense hard work by the government.