UP polls: Modi pokes fun at Rahul, says he has learnt to speak

Lucknow/New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday mocked Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, saying “he has learnt to speak, but does not think before speaking, unwittingly admitting to the failure of his party's reign”.

Mr Modi’s remarks at a party event in Varanasi prompted the Opposition leader who, while addressing a rally in the state’s Bahraich launched a fresh scathing attack against the PM. “Make fun of me as much as you want, but respond to charges of personal corruption,” Mr Gandhi said.

Barbs flew thick and fast in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, a day after the Congress leader accused the PM of taking money from the Sahara and Birla groups when he was Gujarat’s chief minister, a charge the ruling BJP has strongly refuted.

The PM did not respond to Mr Gandhi’s charges, but used his wit to attack him. “They have a young leader who is just learning to give speeches. There is no limit to my happiness. In 2009, you couldn’t even tell what is inside this packet and what is not. Now we are finding out,” said the PM.

“There is no chance of an earthquake now that he has spoken. We can be rest assured that there is no danger of the natural calamity in sight,” said Mr Modi during his first visit to his constituency Varanasi after demonetisation. Mr Gandhi had claimed last week that there would be an earthquake if he was allowed to speak in Parliament as he had proof about Modi's “personal corruption”.

Rahul, target of BJP ridicule
Ahead of next year’s elections in UP, stakes are getting bigger and the state has become the main political battleground. Failing to find a face for the polls, the BJP is now relying completely on Mr Modi. Even as the Congress seems to be lagging behind, Mr Gandhi is addressing rallies across the state to garner support for his party.

The Congress vice-president, who has emerged as the target of the BJP’s ridicule, recited a  Mirza Ghalib couplet: Har ek baat pe kehte ho tum, ki tu kya hai, tumhi kaho ki ye andaaz-e-guftugu kya hai (On every utterance of mine, you say what are you. You tell me what is this way of talking).”

Mr Gandhi himself minced no words in attacking the PM. “You sucked the money from the poor to feed the rich who owe '8 lakh crores to banks  Modiji first tell us what was there in the ten packets from Sahara,” he said at the Baharich rally.

Mr Modi earlier hit out at Mr Gandhi’s assertion that the government’s plans for a digital economy would fail because of a low literacy rate in the country.

“I hope he does not say that I had indulged in some sort of black magic to make those who knew how to read and write illiterate,” Mr Modi quipped, drawing laughter and applause from BJP workers.

He said that a cleanliness campaign in the economy had been launched and the “stink” raised during the cleaning of garbage was what the country was feeling, referring to his move last month to recall high-value bills to fight black money and fake currency.

The PM also slammed the Opposition for stalling Parliament over demonetisation, and went on to liken it to the “cover fire” given by Pakistan's forces to help terrorists in infiltration. In a rare attack on former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mr Modi said that he should not have cited India's dismal state to oppose plans for a cashless economy as he has been in the core team of those in charge of the economy since the 1970s.

“Now is this his report card or mine? Whose legacy am I dealing with? Dr Singh’s image is clean but a number of major scams had taken place during his tenure,” he said.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Poonam Mahajan took a dig at Rahul Gandhi, saying he is a “sleeping beauty”, who is “seen dozing off in Parliament whenever she attends it” and asked him to wake up and    stop “singing the raga of demonetisation”.