Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday refuted the allegation that he named Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s father in his speech in Telangana.
“Modiji, while repeatedly calling me the leader of liars, said I took his father’s name. As a matter of fact I have never taken his father’s as there was no use in talking about an elder who is not in politics,” Kharge told a poll meeting at Anupgarh in the Sriganganagar district.
In response to Modi calling him “jhootona ka sardar (leader of liars)”, he reminded him the promise of two crore employment every year he made in 2014. He asked what has come of it. “He (Modi) promised to bring back black money and transfer Rs.15 lakh in the account of every citizen. I ask you (public) whether you got all this? If not, then who is a liar,” he asked.
Recalling PM Modi’s promise to double the income of farmers, he asked has their income doubled. “There was talk of giving free fertilizer to the farmers, are you getting it free? Hey, DAP is not available, urea is not available, but the PM keeps promising. Who is Jhootona Kar Sardar,” Kharge asked.
On Modi’s past as a tea vendor at a railway station, Kharge said, “Wherever Modi goes he projects himself as a poor man to gain sympathy. He says ‘I used to sell tea at the railway station.’ Hey, that’s right, you used to sell tea, so what? My father was a labourer. I am not ashamed of admitting that I am the son of a labourer. I have come into politics to work for the welfare of the people, not to lie, not to alienate people. Not to divide them in the name of religion, in the name of caste. You are dividing them. Yet you claim to unite the country, what a contradictory!”
On the occasion, Kharge reiterated his commitment to fulfill the seven guarantees his party made for the welfare in Rajasthan public if voted to power in the 25 November elections.
Kharge was accompanied by party’s Rajasthan in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and the contestants from the Sriganganagar and Hanumangarh districts.