New Delhi: Congress on Thursday sought to puncture Narendra Modi's development claims saying his Gujarat model was not backed by facts and he was "neither zero nor hero".
Releasing a 32-page document carrying statistics about Gujarat's performance on various paradigms, Union minister Kapil Sibal said Modi's state is "most indebted state of India".
"He (Modi) is neither zero, nor hero. His place lies somewhere in between. He is trying to put down everyone else, the rest of India and give credit only to himself for everything as if he is messiah," he told reporters.
"The fact is that there are many states including Delhi, which are way head Gujarat in many parameters. He changes history, he changes statistics. The truth about Gujarat is that as there is good and bad, hits and misses about it like it is about every state," he said.
As campaign for Delhi assembly polls enters its last leg, Sibal, who is an MP from Chandni Chowk parliamentary seat here, projected the Sheila Dikshit-ruled state way ahead of Modi's Gujarat.
"The average growth rate of Delhi is 11.39 per cent while that of Gujarat is 10.13 per cent. In FDI, Delhi stood at over USD 30 billion after Congress-NCP ruled Maharashtra, where it was above USD 50 billion. Gujarat had FDI of less than USD 10 million," he claimed.
Sibal said that while fiscal deficit in Delhi was Rs 26 billion in 2012-13, that of Gujarat was Rs 178.3 billion as per the RBI data. "Modi keeps saying about Gujarat as if there is no leader in India, who can equal him. He talks as if he has made Gujarat a heaven. One does have a right to desire for prime ministership but not to claim it on the basis of false data. The reality is something else. Gujarat was developed much before Modi was even in picture. Most of the big projects in Gujarat were conceived and developed much before Modi's arrival," he said.
Recalling that during his previous conference, he had dared Modi for a debate on development issue, Sibal said that the Gujarat chief minister has so far not accepted his invite. Replying to a question why Modi had won thrice in Gujarat if the scene is so pessimistic there, Sibal that elections can be won through various means.
"You can win elections through intimidation as well. Winning elections is a different thing." He at the same time said that Congress has nothing to fear from Modi as it will benefit more when he is at the helm of affairs in the BJP.
He said that there are many states, which Modi's Gujarat has surpassed but there are also many states, which are way ahead of that state. Sibal said that despite Modi's claim of 100 per cent electrification of Gujarat, the state ranks 16th by percentage of homes with electricity.
"Over 11 lakh households do not have electricity in a state that boasts of a power generation capacity of over 14,000 MW and claims to have 2000 MW of surplus power. A majority of 63 lakh homes in Gujarat use age-old source of fuel like cow-dung cake and firewood for cooking," he said.
According to Sibal, even in Gujarat, Modi has not been able to surpass the 18.02 per cent growth rate achieved in 1994-95, when Congress leader Chabildas Mehta was chief minister. "Did you come out with any major project, even one between 2001 and 2013," he asked Modi accusing him of "misleading" the nation about Gujarat development.
Poking BJP over Modi's "self-projection", the Union minister said that while the rest of the BJP keeps talking about Modi, he himself does not talk about any other leader of his party. "Modi never mentioned L K Advani or Sushma Swaraj. He has nothing to do with the BJP leadership. All the time he is projecting himself. They should be worried," he said.
