Rahul Gandhi at a rally in Kishanganj, Bihar
An aggressive rebuke by
Rahul Gandhi today sponsored a new political controversy with the BJP issuing a sharp retort. Mr Gandhi, 43, in an unusually direct comment about his political opponent, said today, "
Modi-ji, Hindustan ko ullu banana bandh karo (stop fooling the people of the country)." (
Watch)
A few hours later,
Narendra Modi's party, the BJP hurled back the same dart. "Congress has been in power by fooling people. Congress is a history sheeter in fooling people, and that's why their
yuvraj is talking like this," said the party's Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Mr Gandhi was addressing a rally in Bihar today when he made the controversial "ullu" remark. The young Congress vice-president has been alleging at public meetings that Mr Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat who is running for prime minister, has configured an exaggerated and misleading picture of the development he has fostered in his home state.
The Gujarat model of development, offered by Mr Modi as the main qualification for the country's top job, has been belittled as "
a toffee model" by Mr Gandhi, who claims that the chief minister has sacrificed the interests of the common man to bestow sweetheart deals on big business.
"You get a toffee at Re 1, but Modi gave away 44,000 acre land at Rs 1 per metre," he said recently. "This is not a Gujarat Model, this is a toffee model," he claimed earlier this week. (
Also read: "Toffee, balloon have caught Rahul's fancy," smirks Narendra Modi)
"Toffee model" then trended on Twitter.
Today Mr Gandhi said Mr Modi had provided a Rs 10,000 crore loan to Tata Motors for its Nano car-making factory in Gujarat. He said the Tatas were charged at 0.1 per cent interest, while the common man gets loan from banks at 12 per cent interest.
"For every Nano car, the Gujarat government is providing Rs 40,000 assistance," Mr Gandhi said.
"The total budget of the Gujarat government on education, health and other welfare is less than Rs 10,000 crore," he asserted