Hitting out at the Congress for levelling “baseless” allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi Tuesday said the people of the country will teach a lesson to those engaged in such “conspiracies” in the Lok Sabha polls next year.

The Minority Affairs Minister, while addressing a ‘Sushasan Diwas’ programme on the occasion of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary here, said that during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections as well, then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had talked about “Kafan Chor” to tarnish Vajpayee’s image.

“Now, the present Congress president Rahul Gandhi is carrying forward that legacy of fake and fabricated agenda by levelling baseless allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi to misguide the nation,” Naqvi was quoted as saying by a statement from his office.

“The people of the country will teach a lesson in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to those who are engaged in such conspiracies,” he said.

Naqvi said the Rafale deal was done in a transparent and honest manner, but the Congress was indulging in “shameful politics” even on the sensitive issue of national security.

He said Prime Minister Modi’s decision of surgical strikes and demonetisation had broken the backbone of terrorists and anti-national forces.

“These decisions created frustration among the Congress and its team of conspirators,” he claimed.

“Out of this frustration, they first raised question on surgical strikes and then created a ruckus on demonetisation,” he added.

Naqvi said the Congress should realise that such conspiracies do not last too long.

“The people will teach a lesson to those who had been engaged then in conspiracies against Atal ji and now are trying to defame Modi. Each and every conspiracy against national security will be defeated,” he said.

The Union minister said Rahul Gandhi “who does hard work for 4 days and then goes for a picnic for 4 months” is trying to compete with Prime Minister Modi “who has not taken a leave even for four-and-a-half hours during the last four-and-a-half years”.

The Modi government has established “steps of success” by removing the “stains of failures” left by the earlier regime at the Centre, he said.

The senior BJP leader said good governance of the government will destroy all conspiracies against the prime minister.