Congress chief Malikarjun Kharge lambasts PM Modi; calls him 'chieftain of liars', sympathy seeker
Dediapada(PTI): Congress president Malikarjun Kharge on Sunday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a "jhoothon ka sardar" (chieftain of liars), and said the latter tries to gain sympathy by calling himself poor and claiming that people abuse him.
Addressing a public rally at Dediapada in tribal-dominated Narmada district of poll-bound Gujarat, Kharge said he himself comes from the "poorest of the poor and untouchable caste".
"Modiji and (Union Home Minister Amit) Shah ask what Congress did in 70 years? Had we not done anything in 70 years, you would not have got democracy. And people like you who always claim to be poor. I am also poor. I am from the poorest of the poor. I come from the untouchable caste. At least people drink your tea. People do not even drink my tea," he said.
"And then you say, I am poor, someone abused me, said something to me, asked what my status is. If you are trying to gain sympathy by saying such things, then (understand) people are now intelligent. They are not that foolish," he said.
Asserting that people will listen if you lie once or twice, Kharge asked the PM, "How many times have you told a lie?"
He alleged Modi had indulged in telling "lie after lie" and was accusing the Congress of looting the country while himself standing with the rich.
"How many times have you told a lie? Lie after lie. He is a chieftain of liars. And on top of it he says, these Congress people looted the country. You are also looting the land of the poor, not giving land to the Adivasis. Who is destroying land, water and forest? You and the rich people with whom you stand, they are looting us," he alleged.
The Assembly polls in Gujarat will be held in two-phases - on December 1 and 5, while votes will be counted on December 8.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
