Chidambaram responds to Modi, lists out names of Congress presidents
New Delhi, Nov 17: Former Union minister P Chidambaram Saturday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for targeting the Congress, reminding him of the party's legacy by listing out the names of its presidents from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family.
He asked the prime minister to now speak on the Rafale aircraft deal, unemployment and suicide of farmers during his rule.
In an election rally in Chhattisgarh on Friday, Modi had asked the Congress to make a Congressman, from outside the Nehru-Gandhi family, president of the party for five years.
In a series of tweets, Chidambaram listed out the names and said the Congress was proud of the humble origins of its post-Independence leaders like Babasaheb Ambedkar, Lal Bahadur Shastri, K Kamaraj and Manmohan Singh and many others besides thousands others during pre-Independence days.
"To jog PM Modi's memory: among the Congress Presidents since 1947 were Acharya Kripalani, Pattabhi Sitaramayya, Purushottamdas Tandon, U N Dhebar, Sanjiva Reddy, Sanjivaiah, Kamaraj, Nijalingappa, C Subramanian, Jagjivan Ram, Shankar Dayal Sharma, D K Barooah, Brahmananda Reddy, P V Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri (sic)," he said.
In a dig at Modi, Chidambaram said he was grateful that the prime minister was "concerned" about who is elected as Congress president and he devotes a lot of time talking about it.
"Will he spend half the time and speak about demonetisation, GST, Rafale, CBI and the RBI?
"Will PM Modi speak about farmers' suicides, massive unemployment, lynchings, rape crimes against women and children, anti-Romeo squads, gau rakshak vigilantism and increasing terror attacks?" he said.
At the rally in Ambikapur in north Chhattisgarh, Modi had also attacked Congress president Rahul Gandhi and asked him to give an account on the contributions of the four generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family to the nation.
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Kumaraswamy accuses Cong govt of 'neglecting' farmers in Karnataka
Mysuru (PTI): Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday accused the Congress government in Karnataka of "neglecting" the farmers in the state and being involved in corruption.
The JD(S) leader took part in an event where President Droupadi Murmu inaugurated the 1066th Jayanthi celebrations of Adi Jagadguru Sri Shivarathreeshwara Shivayogi Mahaswamiji at Malavalli in Mandya district, which comes under his Lok Sabha constituency.
"I saw a report that 2,800 farmers have died by suicide after this government came to power (in state). The government seems to be not concerned about the farmers. This government on coming to power said that it will give Rs 24,000 crore as loan to 32 lakh farmers for their farming activities, but till November, about Rs 12,000 crore has been paid to 24 lakh farmers, limiting to what was there earlier by managing the books of account," Kumaraswamy said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, "These things show the failures of this government. Also, there is a corrupt system. I will not speak about it now. After December 20, I will speak to you in detail. There are a lot of issues to share with you."
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Responding to a question, the JD(S) leader, who turned 66 today, said there is no use of giving any documents. "I'm waiting for the right time."
Regarding the Congress government introducing a bill against "hate speech" in the Assembly, Kumaswamy said it is aimed at silencing the opposition in the state, but they won't be successful.
"What do Congress leaders have to say about their workers' comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi?. He cited slogans -- 'Modi teri kabr khudegi, aaj nahi to kal khudegi' (Modi's grave will be dug.. if not today, then tomorrow) -- allegedly raised against Modi at a Congress rally in Delhi on Sunday.
