Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president K.S. Alagiri on Sunday blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for stooping down to new lows in his criticism of Congress.
Addressing a campaign meeting organised by his party in support of P. Saravanan, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s candidate for Tirupparankundram byelection, he referred to the recent speech of Mr. Modi’s, in which he termed late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated, as ‘corrupt number 1.’
“The BJP has ruled the country for more than 10 years now. If Rajiv Gandhi was corrupt, why were they not able to prove it,” he asked. He said that Congress president Rahul Gandhi, however, gracefully responded to Mr. Modi’s speech.
Mr. Alagiri alleged that the Prime Minister was resorting to such tactics since he had nothing to talk about the performance of his government. “He promised to bring the black money stashed in foreign countries and deposit ₹ 15 lakh in everyone’s bank account. He failed to fulfil all his promises,” he said.
He contrasted this with Congress’ party’s assurance of a minimum income of ₹ 6,000 per month to the poorest families in the country. He said that it was a viable scheme and the party will implement it without fail. He credited the Congress party for reducing poverty in the country to a great extent, particularly through schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Criticising the AIADMK government in Tamil Nadu for aligning with the BJP out of fear, he predicted that the AIADMK will split into multiple factions once the election results were announced.