Sindhanur: After his rear-view mirror drive jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday likened the PM to ‘a cricketer who bats looking at the wicketkeeper without knowing from where the ball is coming.’
"If Sachin Tendulkar would have batted looking at the wicketkeeper, could he have scored a single run? Our Prime Minister is such a cricketer who looks at the wicketkeeper and does not know from where the ball is coming," he quipped at a public meeting here.
On day two of his campaign in the run-up to the Assembly elections, Mr Gandhi, on seeing the unprecedented crowds at his rallies, chose to hit the PM where it hurts most. He advised Mr Modi to take a leaf from the life of Basavanna, the twelfth century social reformer, who propounded the concept, Kaayakave Kailasa (Work is Worship).
Mr Modi while replying to the motion of thanks to the President's address last week, had advised CM Siddaramaiah to derive inspiration from Basaveshwara'a Anubhava Mantapa.
The Congress in Karnataka led by Siddaramaiah had walked the talk and followed the principles of Guru Basavanna while Modi had failed on this count, said Mr Gandhi. “The BJP failed to create jobs, bring back black money and brought down the economy, but all Modi talks about is ‘Congress this, Congress that’. When I requested for a farm loan waiver, Siddaramaiahji immediately obliged.” The government in Delhi, according to Mr Gandhi, works for 5-10 capitalists. Last year, the Modi government waived loans worth Rs 1.2 lakh crore of the richest people. “I personally told Mr Modi that if he can waive those, he should also waive the loans of farmers who are the backbone of this country. I went to see him only once and that was for farm loan waiver, but Mr Modi didn’t respond. He didn't even say he would consider the proposal,” he said.
On Monday, Mr Gandhi will address a tribal rally at Devadurga in Raichur and public meetings at Jevargi and Kalburgi.
