After Mann ki Baat, PM Modi should start ‘Jhooti Baatein’, says Kapil Sibal

NEW DELHI: Senior Supreme Court advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal said on Sunday Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “not courageous enough to make a statement against the judiciary” and that he makes it a habit to “lie”.

Accusing the PM of raking up the issue for political gains, Sibal said, “He is targeting me because he doesn’t have the courage to make allegations against anybody else, knowing fully well that I have not been involved in the matter since January 2018.”

Sibal also dismissed PM Modi’s allegations that Congress’ Rajya Sabha leaders had intimidated Supreme Court judges with the threat of impeachment if they did not stall the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri case until after the general elections in 2019. “PM alleges Congress was responsible for the matter not being heard in SC. But, doesn’t he know that Congress isn’t a party in the case, nor is theBJP? I was representing a stakeholder,” he said.

Even as Modi alleged during a campaign rally in Rajasthan that Congress was delaying the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya, Sibal called him a “liar” and suggested Modi should replace his radio address ‘Mann ki Baat’ with ‘Jhooti Baatein’. “I want to tell the PM that the 50th edition of his Mann ki Baat is over. Now he should come up with a new show ‘Jhoothi Baatein’. The country knows who is the liar. I did not appear in the Ram Mandir case. The CJI has made things clear about the case hearing,” Sibal said.

Sibal also said PM Modi and his party were conveniently remembering ‘Ram Lalla’ just ahead of the poll season. He said, “Why was the matter not raised during former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s term or after he came to power in 2014? Did he forget Ram Lalla in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017? How has he just remembered Ram Lalla in 2018, because the 2019 elections are near? So who is playing politics here?”