Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Kuldeep Singh Rathore on Sunday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Howdy Modi’ and ‘Namaste Trump’ events after US President Donald Trump’s loss in the presidential election, saying Modi will also be ousted like Trump.
Addressing media persons in Shimla, Rathore said the ‘Namaste Trump’ event in Gujarat in February this year led to spread of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) in the country and the event should have been avoided in view of outbreak of the deadly viral disease across the world.
“PM Modi instead of hosting the event in support of US President Donald Trump, should have taken pre-emptive measures to check the Covid outbreak but the BJP government ignored the advice of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The BJP leaders, instead of taking Gandhi’s advice, criticised him for warning PM Modi about the seriousness of viral disease,” he added.
State Congress chief criticised Modi led Centre government for demonetization on 8 November 2016 and said the decision had a disastrous impact on Indian economy with small and medium businesses facing the brunt of the ill-advised decision.
“If an inquiry is ordered after the ouster of PM Modi led NDA government at Centre, the demonetization will prove to be the biggest scam in the history of the country as the promised black money wasn’t recovered and 99 percent of the total money was deposited in the banks. The drive has also led to fake currency finding its way to the government treasury that caused loss to the government exchequer,” he said.
He further stated that the demonetization drive impacted the economy in an adverse manner with thousands of small industries facing closure while the entire industrial sector got affected from which it still had to recover.
“This single decision of PM Modi destroyed the Indian economy overnight, rendering lakhs of people unemployed. The very motive of demonetization seemed to be organized loot and legalized plunder as had been explained by former PM Dr Manmohan Singh,” he said.
Rathore urged the Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur to get the plaque of Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi restored at Atal Tunnel Rohtang as was promised by him and said otherwise, the party will be forced to hold statewide protests.
“When the CM had said that the Plaque is with Border Roads Organisation then why had the agency not been asked to place it at the original spot,” he added.
He added the question was not about the name of Sonia Gandhi on the plaque but it was about the democratic traditions and history of our country with which the BJP was meddling and wanted to change for its vested interests.