Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday took a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for holding his first press conference in five years.
“Prime Minister holds a press conference just 4-5 days before the election ends. Unprecedented! Prime Minister of India is holding a press conference for the first time,” he said at a press conference in New Delhi.
Reiterating his demand for a debate with the PM over the Dassult Rafale deal, the 48-year-old Gandhi said, “Now that the Prime Minister is doing a live press conference, I want to ask him ‘why didn’t you debate with me on Rafale?’ I had challenged you for a debate; tell the press why you didn’t debate.”
Gandhi has been regularly slamming the PM over alleged corruption in the deal.
The PM addressed a press conference at the same time when Gandhi was addressing the media. Interestingly though, the PM did not take questions from the media. All the questions were answered by BJP chief Amit Shah.
“Congratulations Modi Ji. Excellent Press Conference! Showing up is half the battle. Next time Mr Shah may even allow you to answer a couple of questions. Well done!” Gandhi tweeted, taking a sarcastic jibe at the PM.
Congratulations Modi Ji. Excellent Press Conference! Showing up is half the battle. Next time Mr Shah may even allow you to answer a couple of questions. Well done! 👍
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 17, 2019
In his press conference, Rahul Gandhi also took a jab at the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“Role of EC has been biased in this election. Modi-ji can say whatever he wants to say while we’re stopped from saying the same thing. Seems like election schedule was made for Modi-ji’s campaigning,” he said, adding, “BJP and Narendra Modi have lots of money while we have truth.”
Commenting on the SP-BSP-RLD mahagathbandhan, Gandhi said that he respects the alliance and believes that ideologically all opposition parties agree that the BJP has to be defeated.
“I respect the fact that BSP-SP decided to fight the elections together in UP…Ideologically they are on the same page like us. I don’t see Mayawati Ji, Mulayam Singh Ji, Mamata Ji, Chandrababu Ji supporting Narendra Modi government,” he said.
Gandhi also said that his party’s first priority is to defeat the BJP.
“From the Congress party perspective, I have to push the Congress ideology in UP. I made it very clear to Jyotiraditya and Priyanka that priority number one is to make sure BJP losses. Priority number two is to push Congress ideology, priority number three is to win the (UP) Vidhan Sabha election,” he elaborated.
At the press conference, Gandhi also said that his party has succeeded in closing “90 per cent of the doors” that PM Modi could open for the BJP.
“He (PM Modi) closed 10 per cent himself,” Gandhi said, adding that the PM had a huge opportunity when he came to power in 2014 but “lost sight of the real picture”.
He claimed that the Congress has protected the institutions of this country from Modi and RSS.
“Congress dismantled Modi’s ideology. Our party raised issues related to farmers. We introduced NYAY scheme. We have done our work. The rest depends on the people of the nation,” he said.
In his first press conference in five years, the PM thanked the people for reposing its confidence in him and his government while asserting that he will come to power with full majority a second time.
“It will happen after a long time in the country, I think. Our government will come to power with an absolute majority for second consecutive time. Earlier, circumstances were that some collaborations made government; some through family traditions; but not in 2014, and now in 2019,” he said.
Thanking the people he said BJP will try to fulfil the promises made in the manifesto at the earliest.
“We will try to fulfil promises made in our manifesto at the earliest. Our speciality has been last mile delivery. This is the new culture of governance,” PM Modi said.
The last phase of the Lok Sabha elections will be held on 19 May. The results will be announced on 23 May.