Prime Minister Narendra Modi likens Opposition parties to liquor

Meerut/Rudrapur/Akhnoor: Launching his party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in three states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday kept the focus on national security, terrorism and how his “decisive” government showed the courage to conduct a surgical strike in all spheres — land, sky and space.

Mr Modi addressed rallies in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh, Rudrapur in Uttarakhand and Akhnoor in Jammu and Kashmir — all part of Lok Sabha constituencies figuring in the first phase of the polls on April 11.

Mr Modi also tore into the opposition parties by coining an acronym ‘SARAB’ (alcohol) from the initial letters of the Samajwadi Party (SP), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) alliance and urged people to “stay away from ‘SARAB’ in the polls for the good health of Uttar Pradesh.” The Hindi word for liquor is sharab.

The remarks by Mr Modi, who also termed the SP-RLD-BSP alliance in UP mahamilavat (adulterated), drew a furious reaction from the Congress and the SP.
The Congress demanded an apology from Mr Modi while SP chief Akhilesh Yadav accused him of spreading the “intoxication of hatred”, saying the Prime Minister didn’t know the difference between sharab and sarab (mirage).

Continuing his attack on the Congress, Mr Modi accused it of raising questions on the valour of the armed forces after the post-Uri surgical strikes in 2016 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and later the air strikes in Balakot inside Pakistan in February.

The contest is between a “a decisive government and an indecisive past”, Mr Modi said at the BJP’s Vijay Sankalp rally in the western UP town of Meerut, a day after announcing that India had demonstrated the anti-satellite missile capability by shooting down a live satellite to join an elite club of space super powers.