In a curious twist to the electoral discourse on crony capitalism, PM Modi accused Congress of striking a deal with “Ambani and Adani” and asked if the party had received “tempo loads of black money” from the two businessmen in return for Rahul Gandhi to stop “abusing” them during the elections.
“You must have seen, for the past five years, the Congress shehzada used to chant morning to evening about ‘five industrialists’... then ‘Ambani, Adani’. But ever since elections have been announced, these people (Congress) have stopped abusing Ambani-Adani,” the PM said at a rally in Karimnagar in Telangana.
The PM said, “Mein aaj Telangana ki dharti se poochna chahta hoon… shehzade ghoshit kare ki chunaav mein yeh Ambani-Adani se kitna maal uthaya hai. Kaale dhan ke kitne bore bhar kar ke rupye maare hain? Kya tempo bhar kar ke notein Congress ke liye pahunchi hai kya? Kya sauda hua hai? (I ask from the soil of Telangana, let the shehzada declare how much money he has taken from Ambani-Adani these elections… how many sacks of black money? Have tempos full of currency notes reached Congress? What deal has been struck?)”
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge joined in the counter-attack and said the PM had turned on his friends because of his fear of imminent defeat in elections.
“Since April 3, Rahul Gandhi has mentioned Adani 103 times and Ambani more than 30 times in his speeches,” Congress general secretary in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh said. He added that Congress had repeatedly demanded the formation of a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the “Modani scam” since Jan last year.
Rushing to her brother’s defence, Priyanka Gandhi said, “The PM might be saying that Rahul does not take the name of Adani and Ambani, but the fact is that he (Rahul) does so every day. On the contrary, I feel the PM is giving a lot of clarifications these days. After all, he has given the nation’s wealth to billionaires. Airports, ports, roads or mines, you name it, and it is gone.”
Kharge said Modi’s attack on his “own friends” was the best opinion poll on the first three phases of elections. “Time is changing... A friend is no more a friend. After completion of three phases of elections, the PM has started attacking his own friends,” he said.
Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal called the PM’s statement “laughable”.
