Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his party's signature campaign "Main Bhi Chowkidar", the Congress today pushed out a tweet alleging that he has only helped big industrialists such as Anil Ambani and Gautam Adani during his tenure.
"Important message to Modi: India is not foolish. Everybody knows that you are the one and only chowkidar (watchman) who favours suits and boots," the English translation of its Hindi tweet read.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi posted images of industrialist Anil Ambani, besides fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksey and Vijay Mallya, and captioned it with the remark: "You feeling a little guilty today?"
While the Congress accuses Mr Ambani of exerting its influence on the government to bag the offset contract for Dassault's Rafale fighter jets, the rest are businessmen who fled the country after taking crores of rupees in loans from Indian banks. The opposition party alleges that the BJP "helped" these fugitives while ignoring the needs of the country's poor.
Releasing the "Main Bhi Chowkidar" video on Twitter, PM Modi had said on Twitter this morning that the watchman - in a reference to himself - was standing firm to serve the nation. "But I am not alone. Everyone who fights corruption, dirt and social evils is a chowkidar. Everyone working hard for the progress of India is a chowkidar," he added.
The video ended with an appeal for people to join his "Main Bhi Chowkidar" programme on March 31.
The campaign comes amid Rahul Gandhi's repeated attacks against PM Modi over the Rafale jet deal reworked by his government.
In the past, PM Modi has repeatedly declared himself as a "chowkidar" tasked with safeguarding the country's wealth and a "pradhan sevak" - or prime servant - whose sole aim is to serve the people.
However, while alleging discrepancies in the Rafale deal, the Congress played on his "chowkidar" remark to coin the slogan "chowkidar chor hain" - translating to "the watchman is the thief".
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