Bhubaneswar: Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal Saturday described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the state as “jumla” while asking what he has done for Odisha.
Addressing a press conference here hours before the prime minister’s arrival, Sibal said Modi was out to destroy the country.
Modi later in the day addressed a public meeting organised by the state BJP at Cuttack to mark the completion of four years of the NDA government at the Centre.
“There is neither achhe din nor sachhe din after four years. Mr Modi, we will move forward without you,” Sibal, who was here to attend the Congress’s vishwasghaat diwas (betrayal day), said.
Hitting out at Modi for his ‘naamdar’ (dynast) barb, Sibal said the people of the country want the next prime minister to be ‘kaamdar’, ‘jimmedar’ and ‘imandar’ who is not in the habit of making hollow promises.
“People of the country want the next prime minister to be not only ‘kaamdar’ (one who works) but also ‘jimmedar’ (responsible) and ‘imandar’ (honest) who is not a ‘jumlawar’ (one who makes hollow promises),” Sibal told reporters here.
He was referring to the “naamdar” barb by Modi apparently targeted at Congress president Rahul Gandhi during his campaign in the Karnataka Assembly election.
“It was during the Congress rule at the Centre when several industries, including Paradip, Nalco, Rourkela Steel Plant and Hirakud, were set up in Odisha, whereas during Modi’s period Odisha has not seen a single industry come up,” he said.
Terming Modi as ‘anti-people’, he said his government was of Paytm and Amazon and not of poor people.
The Congress leader said Odisha was yet to get special status. “During his campaigning, Modi had promised to increase the MSP for paddy 1.5 times. But this government has gone back on its word. A delegation had gone to meet the PM in this regard, but he could not find a few minutes to talk to them. Not a single vote should go to this anti-farmer government,” Sibal said adding the projects he had inaugurated did not move forward. Only entrepreneurs including Paytm and Amazon were benefited due to Modi.
“Modi will reach Cuttack by air, not by road because he could not face public,” he said adding no government will survive if women and poor people are tortured.
He said that Modi had failed to honour commitments that he had made to people during elections. Modi had promised to make an eastern corridor covering over 400 km coastline in Odisha, but he is yet to meet the commitment.
Sibal also took a dig at Naveen Patnaik’s government and said at the time when Chhattisgarh was about to start constructing a barrage on the upstream of Mahanadi, the Chief Minister had said that it would have little impact on Odisha. Now, as the election is approaching, he is trying to make an issue out of the Mahanadi only to capture votes.
Meanwhile, the state Congress observed Saturday as `vishwasghaat diwas’ to coincide with the NDA government’s completion of four years in office by conducting ‘Ravan podi’ of Modi in front of the Congress Bhavan here.
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