Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking in Lok Sabha today following Congress’s Rahul Gandhi’s attack on his government, lashed out at 10 years of UPA rule, saying it had ‘bled the country dry’.
Replying to the motion of thanks to the President’s address in parliament, PM Modi launched a sharp attack on the opposition and the 10 years of UPA rule in the country, saying “2004 to 2014 was the decade of scams and violence and the UPA’s trademark was to turn every opportunity into crisis,”
PM Modi accused the opposition of being so immersed in despair that they can’t see the progress the country is making. “And why wouldn’t it be so? Because in the decade between 2004 and 2014,” he said, launching into one of his sharpest attacks on the Congress.
“Before 2014, between 2004 to14, inflation was high. That decade was the most corrupt since Independence. In UPA’s 10-year rule, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, the entire country was gripped with terrorism. From J&K to the northeast, the entire region saw nothing but violence. In those 10 years, India was so weak at the global stage; no one was even ready to listen to India. Between 2004 and 2014, the UPA turned every opportunity into a crisis,” PM Modi said.
#WATCH | During 10 years of UPA govt, inflation was in double digits and hence when something good happens, their sadness increases. In the history of the country's independence, 2004-2014 was full of scams. Terror attacks took place across the country in those 10 years: PM Modi pic.twitter.com/Gi6i5vhG8L
— ANI (@ANI) February 8, 2023
“Over the last nine years, instead of constructive criticism, compulsive critics have taken over, those who feel that abusing Modi will solve their problems,” he added in an arch reference to Rahul Gandhi’s attack yesterday.
“Yesterday again in the Parliament, there was a discussion on Harvard,” PM Modi then added, leaving no room for doubt about his target.
“The Congress said India’s destruction will be a case study at Harvard. However, in the past few years, Harvard did an important study. The topic was: The Rise and Decline of India’s Congress Party. In the future, the destruction of Congress will not just be studied at Harvard but also at many other institutions around the globe,” said PM Modi taking a jab at Gandhi’s Harvard comment yesterday.
“Harvard University should study the relationship between politics and business – India is a case study and the Prime Minister should be given a gold medal for this,” Gandhi had said in his first speech in Lok Sabha after his Bharat Jodo Yatra.
Yesterday, Rahul Gandhi had also accused the Prime Minister helping grow the business empire of Gautam Adani, whose companies are in the limelight after a controversial report by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research alleged stock manipulation and accounting by the group.
The BJP said it was clear that Gandhi would make Gautam Adani the focus of the Congress campaign for the next election, and it would fail just the way their attack on the Rafale deal failed in 2019.
“You are frustrated. But what can we do if the people won’t vote for your party,” said senior BJP leader and former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
PM Modi also talked about the economic growth of the country by calling India the 5th largest economy in the world.
“In the last nine years, India saw the birth of 90,000 start-ups. We are now third in the world when it comes to start-up. Many countries are facing inflation, and unemployment. But Indians are proud that we are the 5th biggest economy in the world. Today, India is an example of hope, positivity”, he said.
