PTI, Assam :
Narendra Modi Saturday hit out at Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over the claims made in a book by the Prime Minister’s former aide, saying the mother and son would have to pay the “price” for running the UPA government from behind the scene.
“The book ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ by Sanjaya Baru has brought to fore what we (BJP) have been saying for so long – that mother and son were the primary decision makers and Manmohan Singh was just a facade,” he told a poll rally at Kakoijan in Baongaigaon district.
“It is clear (in the book) who was the actual prime minister. What Manmohan Singh says does not matter. Both mother and son have to pay a price for this,” he said.
Continuing his tirade against the Congress, the BJP prime minister hopeful said “…Today, I cam across a very entertaining piece of news. The PMO has said that the Prime Minister had delivered over 1100 speeches during the ten years of his rule. This is just to prove that he is not ‘Maun (silent) Mohan Singh.”
The statement was made by the prime minister’s Communications Adviser Pankaj Pachauri yesterday to counter the damaging claims made by Baru, the former media adviser to Singh.
Modi said it would have been more appropriate if the PMO had issued a statement on what the Prime Minister had done for the poor and the common man, he said.
“Have the PMO’s office ever announced what they have done for the Koch Rajbongshis or the tribals and adivasis of Assam? No they have not because they do not give you any importance or are concerned about you. They only remember you when elections come. Now it is your turn to forget them,” he told the gathering.
He hit out at the Congress top leadership, saying it has become a “habit” with Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to “spread lies” across the country. Rahul, he charged, was spreading lies by saying that small-scale industries are closing down in Gujarat.
Virtually throwing a challenge at the Congress vice-president, he said, “Today both of us are in Assam, so lets face each other. Forget about Gujarat. What has your three-time Congress chief minister done to reopen the closed Ashok Paper Mills in the state? Has he taken any steps to provide employment opportunities for the youth?”
“The Congress has been cheating you. When they need your votes, the mother and the son comes to the fore but stay behind the curtains when running the government,” he charged.
