Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of misusing public money and government podium to spread the BJP’s propaganda and to attack the opposition, the Congress on Tuesday contested the “tall claims” of his government’s achievements.

Strongly objecting to PM Modi using the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in Varanasi as a stage for election campaigning, Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma demanded the Election Commission’s intervention.

“No Prime Minister in the history of India holds the record of wasting public money for election campaign. The Prime Minister is the BJP’s chief propagandist and has used his entire tenure for the propaganda of BJP,” Sharma said.

The Congress leader accused PM Modi of lowering political discourse to “gutter level”.

Sharma claimed that Rs. 6,000 crore had been spent in “Modi’s propaganda” which included public sector undertakings spending huge money to carry out the government advertisements.

“Modi cannot use public money and resources and facilities that come with the Prime Minister’s office to engage in political propaganda and berating the opposition,” he said.

“He is the first Prime Minister who is full of vitriol and ill-will against the opposition, particularly the Congress, and has the dubious distinction of dragging political discourse to gutter level,” said Sharma.

Ridiculing PM Modi’s claims of India making rapid progress in all spheres under his regime, he pointed to the slumping economy and questioned why all economic parameters give a contrary picture.

“Instead of making tall claims, Modi must answer why are we losing jobs. Instead of creating them, 1.10 crore jobs have been destroyed because of his policies. Investments have fallen by 7 percentage points and gross fixed capital formation remains in the negative. He must answer why exports are slumping and why there is flight of capital if indeed India has made so much progress under him,” Sharma said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Congress over corruption using former chief minister Rajiv Gandhi’s remark that only 15 per cent of what is released from the Centre reaches the villages.

Read | PM Modi targets Congress at NRI event, quotes Rajiv Gandhi’s ’15 paise’ remark

Referring to Gandhi’s comment that only 15 paise of a rupee reaches the masses, PM Modi said the Congress government had done nothing to stop the leakage.”You must have heard of an ex-prime minister talking of corruption. He said only 15 per cent of a rupee from Delhi reaches villages and that 85 paise disappears. For so many years, the party that ruled the country accepted this,” he said.

“…Yet, in the following 10-15 years of its rule, there was no attempt to curb the loot and plug the leakage of public money,” PM Modi said after inaugurating the 15th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) 2019 in his parliamentary constituency of Varanasi.

Addressing the Non-Resident Indians at the event, Modi claimed that in the past four-and-a-half years, his government has given around Rs 5,78,000 crore directly to the people through various schemes and have transferred it to their bank accounts.

The prime minister added that his government had stepped in to rectify the situation.

The “85 per cent loot” taking place during the Congress regime had been plugged “100 per cent” through technology, he said.

(With inputs from IANS)