BJP on Tuesday hit out at the Congress, accusing it of political hypocrisy for its claims that the Modi government was “selling” national assets through the Rs 6 lakh crore monetisation pipeline.
Union Minister Smriti Irani cited the Congress-led UPA initiatives of privatisation of airports, monetisation of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, and redevelopment of the New Delhi Railway Station through private partnership.
“Is this Rahul Gandhi's allegation that a government whose 'mukhia' was his mother had sold rail, road and airport,” Irani asked.
“This man's politics begins with hypocrisy, is sustained through arrogance and ends with contempt,” she said, adding the Congress leader today displayed all of it.
Congress leaders Gandhi and P Chidambaram had accused the Modi government of selling all the national assets that were created over the past 70 years.
“It again proves that Rahul Gandhi had shamelessly tried to target the Central Government which has brought the entire monetisation process in a transparent manner and fill coffers of the country and saved the country from the ‘thieves’ of the Congress party,” said Irani, who defeated Gandhi in the Lok Sabha elections from Amethi.
With Gandhi accusing the Modi government of promoting a few select corporates and alleging that the country was heading towards "enslavement", Irani shot back, saying "enslaved" are those who, under a family rule, speak of breaking the country, a reference to controversial comments on Kashmir and Pakistan by two advisors of Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Asked about Rahul Gandhi's claim that he had warned the government of the Covid-19's dangers too, the BJP leader and Amethi MP shot back saying there was not even a district hospital and CT scanner in the constituency he represented for 15 years.
BJP leader and Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the opposition party is a "non-performing asset" that has no value.
Speaking to reporters, Naqvi took a swipe at the Congress, calling it a "depressed defaulter dynasty" and a "champion of confusion and contradiction".
While the Modi government and the BJP are engaged in the "construction of the country, the Congress is involved in the "destruction of the country", he alleged.
(With PTI inputs)