BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi Tuesday said Rahul Gandhi's criticism against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over an apparent RBI-Centre rift, reflects Congress party's grounding, "which is fast eroding in national politics."
Gandhi on Monday said it was nice to see RBI Governor Urjit Patel "finally defending" the central bank from Modi.
"Since the Congress is not getting any chance to expose Modi government on corruption issues, it is picking up subjects concerning government agencies. This shows Congress' grounding, which is fast eroding in national politics," Trivedi told reporters here.
Gandhi also had said it was not too late for the RBI governor to stand in defense of the Reserve Bank of India, after reports said there was a rift between Patel And 'Team Modi'.
Responding to Gandhi's charges, Trivedi denied there was any rift between RBI and the central government.
Deputy RBI governor Viral Acharya had stirred a hornet's nest recently by pitching for "effective independence" of the bank.
Trivedi said India was marching ahead in terms of economic prosperity which is mirrored in India surpassing France and becoming the sixth largest economy in the world.
Next year, he claimed India would surpass China as fastest growing economy.
About the electoral prospects of BJP in Kerala against the backdrop of anti-Sabarimala verdict protests, Trivedi said it was very bright, but not in the light of protests,"but in the light of developmental work undertaken by the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre, in Kerala."
"Also, at present the party is having a strong geographic and political expansion in almost all parts of India, including Kerala," he said.
"In Thiruvananthapuram, we are the single largest party in the municipal corporation. We also have prominence presence in Ladakh and Kargil councils," he said.
BJP has also a majority government in Tripura, the spokesperson said.
Coming down heavily on the left government in Kerala for its"mishandling" of Sabarimala protests, Trivedi said "it cannot uphold the dignity of the devotees because it cherishes being atheist and calls religion an opium."
"If these types of rulers are ruling Kerala, can we expect them to uphold the dignity of devotees?" he asked.
Replying to a query, Trivedi said BJP wants construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya and claimed NDA partners have notraised any question on it.
"There has been a paradigm shift even in the stance ofopposition parties, including Samajwadi Party, which insisted on building of mosque earlier, are now pitching for templeconstruction," he claimed.
"Will Congress stand by the same commitment which former PMNarasimha Rao had to construct a temple on the site," heasked.
On "grand alliance" (Mahagatbandhan), Trivedi said it seems to be "crashing before landing" after it had taken off in Bengaluru during the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister H DKumaraswamy.
"Sharad Pawar said there is no Mahagatbandhan at national level, but only at state level. So, in my opinion the so-called flight of Mahagatbandhan which took off from Bengaluru seems to be crashing before it is landing," he said.
Ridiculing the show of unity during Kumaraswamy's swearing-in ceremony, he said "The congregation at the swearing-in of Kumaraswamy was nothing, but 'beta bachaho abhiyan' (save their sons campaign) because Sonia Gandhi, Ajit Singh and others, stood united to save their sons for future elections," he said.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)