Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday struck a mix of humour and sharp political attack as he revealed his “health secret” during his much-anticipated speech in the Rajya Sabha delivered amid sloganeering and a walkout by opposition members.Addressing the House, the Prime Minister said, “…Someone once asked me, ‘Modi ji, what is the secret of your good health?’ I replied, ‘Main daily do kilo gaali khata hun’.”He then went on to mount a strong offensive against the Congress, accusing it of decades of misgovernance and alleging that much of the NDA’s work over the past decade has been about “correcting the mistakes of the past”. Further taking a dig at opposition slogans, the Prime Minister said, “They say, ‘Modi teri kabr khudegi’. This is not merely a slogan but shows deep hatred towards me.”
He also alleged that the opposition protects infiltrators and said the Congress believes the post of Prime Minister belongs only to a “shahi parivar”.“The Congress party has always considered the citizens of this country as a problem. Once, Indira Gandhi visited Iran and, during a speech, quoted a conversation with her father, Nehru ji. I am quoting what she said, ‘When someone asked my father how many problems he has, he answered 35 crore.’ At that time, the country’s population was 35 crore,” he said.The Prime Minister also targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over comments made in the House a day earlier. Referring to him as the “Yuvraj” of the Congress, PM Modi said, “What happened yesterday – the ‘Yuvraj’ of Congress who has ‘shaatir dimag’, called an MP of this House ‘traitor’. His arrogance is at its peak. He did not call anyone else who has left the Congress a traitor. But he called the MP a traitor, because he is a Sikh. This was an insult to the Sikhs, an insult to the Gurus. This was an expression of the hatred for Sikhs that is filled in the Congress...”“He is a member of the family who sacrificed themselves for the country. Just because he changed his political ideology, he became a traitor? This is not a small word. How can the country tolerate a citizen being called a traitor?…This is highly unfortunate. Such people will sink Congress,” he added.
