The Narendra Modi government drew stinging attacks from key ally Shiv Sena and opposition parties on its second anniversary on Thursday with Congress saying it had nothing to show but “empty promises and gimmicks” and that people fell for his “web of deceit”.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on its part rubbished the criticism with its president Amit Shah asserting that the party-led government has established “new benchmarks for development and progress” and “redefined the idea of governance and delivery”.
The Shiv Sena alleged that the National Democratic Alliance failed to rein in inflation, curb cross-border terrorism and that the schemes started during its rule did not reach people.
In a hard hitting editorial in Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, the Sena also took a dig at the prime minister over his frequent foreign trips, saying he has to first decide if his residence was within the country or outside.
Alleging that the two years of NDA rule has only seen “corruption” and “hooliganism”, the Aam Aadmi Party said the Prime Minister’s Office has been reduced to an “international travel agency”.
Fielding a battery of senior leaders in Delhi and other cities in tandem, the Congress tore into government’s handling of a range of issues from economy and employment to terrorism and foreign policy and said there was no governance but only lecture. The Modi dispensation has failed on all fronts, including job creation and reviving the economy, it said.
“Only bhashan no shasan (only lecture, no governance),” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala told reporters in Delhi.
In a power point presentation, the party took a swipe at ‘achche din’ (good days) slogan of Modi in the run up to 2014 Lok Sabha polls, saying people of India fell for Modi’s “web of deceit” woven around development and are now waiting for three more years to put behind the ‘bure din’(bad days) of the Modi regime.
The main opposition party dared the prime minister for a public debate over the need for the second anniversary celebrations, maintaining that his government was “surviving because of newspapers and news channels.”
Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, former Union Minister Kapil Sibal as also Surjewala hit out at the Modi government at a joint news conference in Delhi.
They claimed that what the country had witnessed in the last two years was just “empty promises and gimmicks” and dubbed Modi government as “most disappointing” ruling dispensation since Independence.
Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari while talking to reporters in Ahmedabad accused the Modi government of trying to change the “secular core” of the country and creating an atmosphere of intolerance by raising issues like ‘ghar wapsi’ and ‘love jihad’.
“PM Narendra Moldi’s vision for #TransformingIndia and the exceptional work of the government has redefined the idea of governance and delivery.
“Our ministers have left no stone unturned in providing people friendly and corruption free government, that will take India to newer heights,” Shah said in his tweets.
“The government has established new benchmarks for development and progress and executed its ideology of ‘sabka saath sabka vikas’,” he added.
