Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday tore into the Congress, terming its manifesto as a “hypocrisy document” which was “full of lies”.
Addressing his second rally in Arunachal Pradesh within a week, the Prime Minister said the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will be about the choice between “trust and corruption, and about resolution and conspiracy”.
Referring to the Congress manifesto for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Modi said it had promised that every house would have electricity by 2009. “However, till 2014 around 18,000 villages in the country were still to be electrified... Just like them (the Congress), their manifesto is corrupt and full of lies. Therefore, it should be called hypocrisy document (dhakosla patra), not a manifesto,” Modi said at the rally here, around 220 km from State capital Itanagar.
During his address, Modi said with the NDA coming back to power in 2014, it fulfilled the promise of the Congress by illuminating the 18,000 villages within 1,000 days. Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday had released his party’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha polls, making job creation, addressing farm distress, bringing a single moderate rate of GST and giving Rs 72,000 per annum to poor families as key focus, if it comes to power.
Modi also attacked the Congress, alleging that it sympathises with those who insult India, and wondered whether its party symbol, the hand, is with the country or with those conspiring against it.
“Those who burn the Tricolour and insult it, raise slogans of breaking India into pieces, play in the hands of foreign forces and vandalise statues of Baba Saheb (Ambedkar), the Congress sympathises with them, too,” he alleged.
The PM said unlike the Congress, the BJP never made false promises and kept its commitment of providing free LPG connection to nearly 60 crore women in the country, besides constructing toilets in every village and extending healthcare facilities under the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ scheme.
“Under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, about three lakh people in Arunachal Pradesh were covered, who were provided free treatment to the tune of Rs 5 lakh per family,” he said.
Every house in the state has been illuminated with electricity after 70 years of Independence, Modi claimed.
Modi said he does not claim to have completed all the developmental work since becoming prime minister, but, “I can say that I am a man who can withstand any challenge the country faces, and plan and execute all works with dedication and commitment”.
Accusing the Congress of neglecting the north east region, especially Arunachal Pradesh, he said the state never found its place in the “dil” (heart) of the grand old party.
The Prime Minister charged that the Congress was fooling farmers in the name of votes, whereas the BJP Government has always been with them. “We never committed the sin of betraying farmers but we introduced the mechanism from seed to market,” the PM said.
Elaborating on the development plans of Arunachal Pradesh, he said the BJP government’s vision for the state is connectivity, resources and respect.
The PM said the State is on the growth path now with many mega projects like the Advance Landing Grounds (ALGs) at Pasighat and Tezu, train connectivity between Naharlagun and Guwahati, and Naharlagun and New Delhi.
Asserting that he is committed to safeguard the tribal tradition and culture, Modi said he had visited the region “more than 30 times” in comparison to his predecessors, because of the love and affection he shares with the people of the north east.
Elections to Arunachal Pradesh’s 57 assembly seats and two parliamentary constituencies will be held simultaneously on April 11.
